Albuquerque Journal

Background check system flawed

Local police, military, courts don’t always send info to gun database

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SEATTLE — Recent mass shootings have spurred Congress to try to improve the nation’s gun background check system that has failed on numerous occasions to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.

The problem with the legislatio­n, experts say, is that it only works if federal agencies, the military, states, courts and local law enforcemen­t do a better job of sharing informatio­n with the background check system — and they have a poor track record in doing so. Some of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings have revealed major holes in the database reporting system, including massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007 and at a Texas church last year.

Despite the failures, many states still aren’t meeting key benchmarks with their background check reporting that enable them to receive federal grants similar to what’s being proposed in the current legislatio­n.

“It’s a completely haphazard system — sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t,” said Georgetown University law professor Larry Gostin. “When you’re talking about school children’s lives, rolling the dice isn’t good enough.”

In theory, the FBI’s background check database, tapped by gun dealers during a sale, should have a definitive list of people who are prohibited from having guns — people who have been convicted of crimes, committed to mental institutio­ns, received dishonorab­le discharges or are addicted to drugs.

But in practice, the database is incomplete.

It’s up to local police, sheriff’s offices, the military, federal and state courts, Indian tribes and in some places, hospitals and treatment providers, to send criminal or mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, but some don’t always do so, or they may not send them in a timely fashion.

Some agencies don’t know what to send; states often lack funds needed to ensure someone handles the data; no system of audits exists to find out who’s not reporting; and some states lack the political will to set up a functionin­g and efficient reporting process, experts said.

“The system is riddled with opportunit­ies for human error,” said Kristin Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

A proposal in Congress seeks to establish a structured system for federal agencies to send records to the NICS database. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says the legislatio­n — often referred to as “Fix NICS” — will save lives.

“We should start with what’s achievable and what will actually save lives, and that describes the ‘Fix NICS’ bill. It will help prevent dangerous individual­s with criminal conviction­s and a history of mental illness from buying firearms,” the Republican said.

Often left out of the debate in Washington is the fact that similar legislatio­n passed after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, but many records are still not being sent to the database.

The Justice Department even set up a new grant program that offered states help with their reporting system, but many didn’t even bother to apply. In 2016, only 19 states and one tribe received funds totaling $15 million. The number of states currently participat­ing is 31.

 ?? SETH PERLMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Assault weapons and handguns are for sale at a gun shop in Illinois in 2013. In theory, the FBI’s background check database should have a definitive list of those prohibited from buying guns.
SETH PERLMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS Assault weapons and handguns are for sale at a gun shop in Illinois in 2013. In theory, the FBI’s background check database should have a definitive list of those prohibited from buying guns.

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