Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vogebam here. In the aftermath of the
Speaker 1: most recent mass shootings in the United States, there's been
Speaker 1: a surge of conversation about HR eight, the Bipartisan Background
Speaker 1: Checks Act of This is a longstalled piece of legislation
Speaker 1: that would require background checks for all gun purchases across
Speaker 1: the nation. Sponsored by California Democrat Representative Mike Thompson, the
Speaker 1: bill was passed by the U. S. House in March
Speaker 1: by a narrow two to three vote, getting support from
Speaker 1: just eight Republican legislators. In the Senate, the bill has
Speaker 1: languished for months due to the reality that it stood
Speaker 1: little chance of passage in that chamber because it's split
Speaker 1: fifty fifty Republican and Democrat and would need to attract
Speaker 1: at least ten Republican supporters in order to prevent a
Speaker 1: filibuster by opponents and moved to a final vote on
Speaker 1: the law, but Senate Democrats have indicated that despite the
Speaker 1: odds against them, they're nevertheless hoping to put the bill
Speaker 1: on the legislative calendar should that plan come to fruition.
Speaker 1: Another gun control bill passed by the House. HR fourty
Speaker 1: six would be put to a vote as well. This
Speaker 1: bill would increase to ten days the time a purchaser
Speaker 1: must wait for a background check. And now, as of
Speaker 1: early June, there's a new package of gun control legislation
Speaker 1: on the table, the Protecting Our Kids Act. So today
Speaker 1: let's talk about these bills and how the laws that
Speaker 1: are currently on the books work. Right now, when someone
Speaker 1: tries to buy a firearm from a federally licensed gun dealer,
Speaker 1: the dealer is required to contact the federal government's National
Speaker 1: Instant Criminal Background Check System, either electronically or by phone.
Speaker 1: The buyer fills out a form that asks them about
Speaker 1: a bunch of things, past criminal indictments and convictions, use
Speaker 1: of drugs, court ordered confinement in mental institutions, dishonorable discharges
Speaker 1: and convictions in military courts, convictions for domestic violence, and
Speaker 1: whether the person is a legal resident of the United States.
Speaker 1: After that, these systems staff performs a background check to
Speaker 1: verify that the buyer is eligible to purchase or own
Speaker 1: a firearm. This background check system, which was created by
Speaker 1: the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of and went online,
Speaker 1: has conducted more than three hundred million checks on gun purchases.
Speaker 1: Most purchasers passed the screening, but more than one point
Speaker 1: five million would be gun buyers have been rejected, according
Speaker 1: to the FBI. Even so, critics point to major loopholes
Speaker 1: in the screening process of people who don't make a
Speaker 1: business of selling firearms but only make occasional sales or
Speaker 1: purchases are exempt from the background check requirement unless they're
Speaker 1: a seller who has reason to believe that a purchaser
Speaker 1: might be legally barred from owning a gun. Additionally, Federal
Speaker 1: logged doesn't established a clear line for when a gun
Speaker 1: seller becomes a professional dealer, of just a vague rule
Speaker 1: of thumb that someone who repetitively sells guns with the
Speaker 1: motive of making a profit must be licensed and conduct
Speaker 1: background checks. That gaping gray area enables non licensed dealers
Speaker 1: to sell scores of weapons at gun shows or via
Speaker 1: Internet ads, or you know wherever, to whoever's buying. A
Speaker 1: study that was conducted by Northeastern University and Harvard University
Speaker 1: researchers and published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine
Speaker 1: in estimated that of gun owners who had obtained a
Speaker 1: weapon in the previous two years had done so without
Speaker 1: going through a background check, and of prison inmates who
Speaker 1: had been prohibited from owning the gun that they used
Speaker 1: in a crime had obtained it through an unlicensed seller.
Speaker 1: HR eight, one of the proposed laws, would eliminate the
Speaker 1: private sales loophole by making such transactions a eagle. Instead,
Speaker 1: private sellers would be required to hand the weapon over
Speaker 1: to a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer, who would then
Speaker 1: comply with the background check requirement before transferring the weapon
Speaker 1: to the buyer. HR eight would still allow a few exceptions.
Speaker 1: Law enforcement agencies would be allowed to do transfers without
Speaker 1: background checks, as would family members giving weapons to other
Speaker 1: family members. A person could also inherit weapons without a
Speaker 1: background check. Finally, in the case of an eminent threat
Speaker 1: of bodily harm or death, a person could give a
Speaker 1: weapon to someone else to protect themselves, as long as
Speaker 1: the weapon was returned when the threat went away. The
Speaker 1: idea of universal or nearly universal background checks is supported
Speaker 1: by the majority of the American public. In April one
Speaker 1: Quinnipiac University poll, for example, found that eight percent of
Speaker 1: Americans favor such a requirement, while only eight percent oppose
Speaker 1: universal background checks. A March one Morning Consult poll had
Speaker 1: a similar result, with eighty four percent of voters, including
Speaker 1: seventy percent of Republicans, supporting mandatory screening before gun sales. Eighteen.
Speaker 1: Gallop Pole found that Americans favored mandatory checks by a
Speaker 1: nine to seven percent margin before the article This episode
Speaker 1: is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with Dan Flannery,
Speaker 1: a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and the director of
Speaker 1: the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at
Speaker 1: Case Western Reserve University. He said that enacting universal background
Speaker 1: checks is an important first step toward reducing gun violence,
Speaker 1: but pet cautions that the information reported in the system
Speaker 1: is limited and may not necessarily detect everyone who is
Speaker 1: a threat. The teenage gunman in the Valdi shootings, for example,
Speaker 1: legally bought two rifles from federally licensed gun store shortly
Speaker 1: after his eighteenth birthday. Grown check system didn't detect the
Speaker 1: disturbing behaviors noticed by friend and relatives that have since
Speaker 1: come to light. Flannery said having more mental health resources
Speaker 1: and thread assessment protocols for when kids who are identified
Speaker 1: who may be at risk. Having those systems of supports
Speaker 1: in place is another thing. Many of the school shooters,
Speaker 1: in particular, have told someone else personally or on social
Speaker 1: media of their attempt, and there were opportunities to intervene.
Speaker 1: Proponents of HR eight face a difficult challenge in the Senate,
Speaker 1: where sixty votes are necessary for passage. When the New
Speaker 1: York Times survey GOP senators, it found that only four
Speaker 1: out of fifty were even open to considering universal background checks.
Speaker 1: Though the Democrats could change the rule to allow a
Speaker 1: straight majority vote, some conservative Democrats opposed such a move
Speaker 1: and favor a different compromise in that vein. A new
Speaker 1: package of gun control legislation passed in a House vote
Speaker 1: on June eight, called the Protecting Our Kids Act. It
Speaker 1: passed two twenty three to two oh four, with five
Speaker 1: Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it and two
Speaker 1: Democrats voting against it. The Act includes bills that would
Speaker 1: raise the age necessary to purchase or receive particular types
Speaker 1: of semi automatic firearms from eighteen years to twenty one years.
Speaker 1: It would establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, established
Speaker 1: frameworks for regulating firearms without serial numbers and the storage
Speaker 1: of firearms, and prohibit large capacity magazines. And create a
Speaker 1: governmental buyback program for people who currently own those. News
Speaker 1: about this new act is still coming in as we
Speaker 1: record this episode, but experts expected to face difficulty in
Speaker 1: the Senate as well. How Stuff Works also spoke with
Speaker 1: Dave Chapman. He's a twenty five year veteran of the
Speaker 1: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the a
Speaker 1: t F, and was President Joe Biden's initial choice to
Speaker 1: head that bureau. He said that conducting background checks on
Speaker 1: nearly all gun purchasers quote would make an extraordinary difference
Speaker 1: in preventing gun violence in this country. He also called
Speaker 1: for raising the federal minimum age for purchasing a rifle,
Speaker 1: which again is currently eighteen years quote. Until we change that,
Speaker 1: a high school senior can roll into a gun shop
Speaker 1: and lawfully by and assualt rifle in the same one
Speaker 1: I carried on a t F squat team, nothing's ever
Speaker 1: going to change. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: HR eight mandates gun background checks? Why is it stuck
Speaker 1: in the Senate? On how stuff works dot com? Written
Speaker 1: by Patrick J. Keaiger. Brainstuff is production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with How Stuff Works dot com and
Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts My Heart Radio,
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