Universal background checks needed for firearm purchases
Americans like to argue about politics, but on one issue, almost everyone agrees. More than 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks for firearm purchases, including 83 percent of gun owners. Republicans, Democrats, it doesn’t matter: we recognize that owning a firearm is a serious responsibility.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “With public sentiment, nothing can fail” — and last month, the House passed historic legislation requiring universal background checks. We also voted to close the Charleston loophole. Right now, federal law permits gun sales to proceed if the purchaser’s background check hasn’t cleared in three days — a nonsensical policy that allowed Dylann Roof to acquire a gun and murder nine South Carolina churchgoers in 2015.
Given the logic — and public support — behind universal background checks, what explains the remaining opposition? In my conversations with Republican colleagues, this is what I hear:
‘Just enforce existing laws’
Federal law prohibits certain people from buying guns — convicted felons and domestic abusers, for example. The problem is that background check requirements only apply to firearm sales that take place at licensed gun dealers. Right now, a prohibited purchaser can buy a firearm at a gun show, online, or even in a parking lot from a stranger, and no background check is required. In fact, it happens millions of times each year — even though we know that at least one in nine online purchases would fail a background check.
‘Criminals don’t buy legally’
The evidence says otherwise. In 2016, the Pennsylvania Instant Checks System (PICS) prevented more than 13,000 prohibited purchasers from buying or transferring a firearm. Over the last 25 years, we’ve stopped more than 3 million such purchases nationwide.
‘Background checks affect gun-owners’ rights’
Not so. Over 90% of background checks are completed within minutes, and that won’t change. We’re not interested in making life difficult for sportsmen — we’re interested in ensuring that prohibited purchasers can’t acquire deadly force.
Our current background check system was created in 1994, before the internet opened up a huge, unregulated market for gun sales. Requiring universal background checks isn’t a radical new policy — it’s simply ensures that the law applies equally.
Last month, I met a young woman from Chicago. She described growing up with a best friend who doubted whether he’d make it to 18. On his eighteenth birthday, he was shot and killed.
The week before that, I attended a gun safety event at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park. The event was arranged by synagogue youth, and Parkland survivor Samara Barrack was the guest speaker. In an affluent suburb, these students are all too aware of the dangers posed by gun violence — and they are organizing for change.
Gun violence isn’t urban or suburban. It isn’t rich, poor, black, white, or anything else. It’s an American problem, and it touches us all.
In 2017, 40,000 Americans were killed by firearms — including more than half to suicide — and 100,000 more were wounded in the crossfire. Today, as you read this, 342 Americans will be shot or killed.
Experts tell us that background checks are one of the simplest, most effective ways to curb gun violence — and state-by-state evidence proves it.
Our Senate colleagues face a choice. They can take the path of inaction and hope that America’s gun violence problem magically resolves itself. Or they can stand up for students and communities and vote to save lives.