Do Background Checks Make Gun Ownership Safer?

Violence and crimes are growing in number and affecting American society. By reinforcing background checks we could reduce crimes and limit easy gun access to mentally ill people. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a database where the names of people that have committed a misdemeanor, are mentally ill or drug abusers is kept to prevent them from attaining guns. Most criminals buy guns from unlicensed sellers at gun shows that don’t do properly background checks through the NICS, making it easier from criminals to purchase firearms. Another problem is missing records or information that was not reported to the background check system. Better background checks could reduce crime and gun violence in America.

According to a report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, the United States has about 35-50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns and has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. With no restriction and so much freedom, firearms can be distributed throughout the United States illegally and obtained as easy as buying it from a person, disregarding all gun laws. Implementing stricter background checks can help reduce the amount of crime relating to gun violence. It can also keep firearms away from those who shouldn’t have possession of them.

The majority of gun crimes are committed with handguns and assault riffles. Assault riffles should be banned from retail all together, and there should be a more detailed process when purchasing handguns. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act requires purchasers to complete a background check and a five day waiting period before they are allowed to purchase a gun. This seems to help so that we aren’t putting guns into criminal’s hands straight from the store, but it is not an overall solution. (www.nraila.org)

These guns are sold on what is called the black market to basically anyone. Anyone of any age, with no waiting period, no matter what your criminal record is, can purchase these guns. The fact that these guns are sold illegally allows guns to fall into the wrong hands. Gang members and murderers purchase these guns and go onto the streets and kill members of our own families. These problems are trying to be prevented by catching them and putting them in jail. By this point it is too late, someone?s child or mother has been killed. If the guns were taken out of their hands the crime would never be committed.

One of the effective gun control methods we have in place today is background checks. But many people are wondering today if background checks are truly effective? Do they really help preventing firearm fatalities? States with the most gun control laws have seen about a 42% decrease in the overall firearm fatalities. They also saw a decrease of firearm related homicides by 40% and in firearm related suicides by 37% (Watkins). According to the Department of Justice, in 2010 about 41% of felons were denied the right to buy a gun from a federally licensed dealer due to a background check (Frandsen, Lauver, Lee, Naglich).

There are many different ways to improve background checks, and many will take time to assess the most effective way to implement them. Guns are a very lethal weapon and should not be given out to anyone who comes along with a little bit of cash, they should be strictly guarded to keep them out of the hands of the wrong people. People who are mentally ill or just purely have bad intentions are too easy getting their hands on guns without any way to trace the gun to them. Guns are being sold and given away without proper documentation and even stolen from legal gun owners. If we make background checks a very hard and difficult process, which will cut down on the number of people who own them and therefor cutting down on the chances of someone with immoral intentions getting one. Cars are the same way these days. In order to be able to drive a car you have to be able to pass a driving test, along with passing other requirements, such as age requirement and supervision of someone who has their license when you first get your

medical history, or any type of records when buying or owning a gun. Checking records of any sort can prevent a massacre to occur. The proposal of the background checks was passed by congress in 2013. What are background checks and what do the check in the background you might ask. Backgrounds checks are known as “Universal Background Checks”, according to csgv.org, prevents felons or prohibit purchasers to buy guns by checking their medical history, checking their criminal records, or both. They believe that this proposal is will be more effective, because it will prevent any more massacres and still protect the rights of people who want to own

Around 10% of guns used in crime were either sold at a gun show or a flea market. Anybody of age can go to a gun show, purchase a gun from an unlicensed distributor and go about their day, no background check, no mental health check. Though, in recent events, Nikolas Cruz purchased his gun at the age of eighteen from someone who had their license to sell. He passed his background check easily because he had no criminal background but no one knew he was depressed, had ADHD, and autism, no one knew until after a horrendous incident that cost people their lives. I read in a Gun Control FAQ, the Gun Control Act of 1968 says anyone in the business of selling guns must be licensed by the government, but it doesn’t say anything about unlicensed men and women selling their guns from their personal collection is not “engaged in the business”, this means that they don’t have to perform background checks, anyone will do anything for some extra money. A simple loophole like this one can land a gun into the hands of a

Government regulations on the sales of firearm is one of the biggest issue on society. For example, people with mental illness and convicted felons possess guns. There’s a few ways to people like them can own a gun. Like they would need a background check, own a license, and a legal citizen to own a firearm. All these ideas can put the future in a good shape because of gun safety technology.

When Background Checks are required, they are extremely effective at making sure that a gun does not end up in the wrong person’s hand. In addition to that, the background check system ahs to become more advanced by going deeper into the clients life being completely sure that the gun is going to good hands when done. “Repeated pools have shown that over 90% of the American Public supports laws requiring background checks on all gun purchasers, regardless of whether they buy weapons from licensed or private dealers. A survey conducted for the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2013 found that 84% of gun owners and 74% of NRA members also support requiring a universal background check system for all gun sales.”

“Ban guns and only criminals will have guns, we are told (Milligan, Susan).” Mrs. Milligan has a valid argument with the number of acts of violence committed with firearms by citizens with no prior violent criminal history, as well as children. There have been a number of seemingly avoidable murders committed with firearms in recent years and the count is steadily rising. I agree that there should be some precautions be in place in the process of buying and selling firearms, there should be a check on violent criminal history and unlawful tendencies. There are background checks in place and when you purchase a firearm it is registered to you and the serial number corresponds to your name in the governments system.

Equally important, those who cannot legally buy guns, they will steal, which make the legal gun owners seem to be the helper of produce crime and obtaining guns from other illegal channel. Gun control laws can prevent the

Even if possessing a gun is illegal, criminals will always have a way of possessing a gun. According to a study done by Mark Judge in 2015, “Of the 70 who admitted to having access to a gun, the survey found that only two (3 percent) were purchased directly from a gun store. Most had gotten their guns illegally: “adults who are entitled to possess a gun are more likely than not to buy from an FFL [licensed dealer].” Criminals can effortlessly obtain a gun with money through the black market. They are very unlikely to walk into a gun store to buy a gun. Therefore background checks do not affect criminals at all. Many gun control advocates have thought of methods to restrict guns to criminals such as background checks, limiting the size of magazines, and regulating the type of guns. In the article, Making Gun Control Happen, written by a pro-gun control advocate Patrick Radden Keefe deems that, “One obvious change would be to mandate a criminal background check for all gun purchases.” The more gun control laws, there are, the easier is it for criminals to act out their crime due to there being a less of a chance for a citizen stopping the criminal with a

Watchel said that another way of obtaining an illegal gun is from unlicensed street dealers or black markets. Most illegal dealers get their guns from gun thefts or straw purchases. Like marijuana and other illegal drugs, it’s very easy to obtain and buy illegal guns. Set Chicago as an example, the city has very strict gun laws, but it was still crowned the murder capital of the US. The city has no gun stores, but most people are getting their guns from outside the city. Imagine if the US has gun control laws that prohibited millions of Americans from owning guns, its neighboring countries would supply them illegal guns, just like they did with Marijuana and other illegal drugs. According to Edward Dolan, author of Gun Control: a Decision for Americans, a gun control act was passed in 1968 that prohibited the imports of cheap guns from abroad. Dolan said that the law seems to be working at first, but later, the number of imported guns went back to where it was before. Another indication that the gun control didn’t work is that, the homicide rate quickly rose up to 300 % after the 1968 law was passed. Basically, gun control made matters worse in the past, and it will in the future, if the government continues to propose it. No law would have the ability to contain guns or hide their existence. The truth is that, people will always find ways to get their hands on a gun if they really wanted to. Criminals

There are a large number of guns that are sold in the United States each year. As ATF says,” there is an estimated 4.5 million guns sold each year in the United States.” This statistic shows that there are a lot of guns sold each year. If the police could see the location of these guns they them could see if they are with people who shouldn’t have guns. Fact check stated that,”40% of guns are sold without a background check.” These guns are sold privately and not in a store. A criminal could go to a new city and meet new people and get a gun from a person who didn't know that he was a criminal. This guy could then go back to where he is from and create more crime. Robert Verbruggen quoted,” approximately 40% of guns are sold privately after they have been bought from a business.” The guns that are sold after they get bought from a store are sold without a background check. These guns would be able to be seen on the police radar and the police would be able to see who has possession of the guns. All in all, guns are bought and sold every day and if the police could see where and when they were sold they could cut down on the crimes in