WEBVTT - How Do U.S. Gun Background Checks Work? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.960 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.400 brain Stuff, Lauren vogebam here. In the aftermath of the 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.320 most recent mass shootings in the United States, there's been 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.520 a surge of conversation about HR eight, the Bipartisan Background 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:23.280 Checks Act of This is a longstalled piece of legislation 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.560 that would require background checks for all gun purchases across 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:31.800 the nation. Sponsored by California Democrat Representative Mike Thompson, the 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.000 bill was passed by the U. S. House in March 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:40.040 by a narrow two to three vote, getting support from 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.680 just eight Republican legislators. In the Senate, the bill has 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.680 languished for months due to the reality that it stood 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.600 little chance of passage in that chamber because it's split 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.080 fifty fifty Republican and Democrat and would need to attract 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.880 at least ten Republican supporters in order to prevent a 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.840 filibuster by opponents and moved to a final vote on 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.560 the law, but Senate Democrats have indicated that despite the 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.880 odds against them, they're nevertheless hoping to put the bill 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.399 on the legislative calendar should that plan come to fruition. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.480 Another gun control bill passed by the House. HR fourty 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.280 six would be put to a vote as well. This 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.600 bill would increase to ten days the time a purchaser 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.039 must wait for a background check. And now, as of 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:28.080 early June, there's a new package of gun control legislation 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.480 on the table, the Protecting Our Kids Act. So today 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.080 let's talk about these bills and how the laws that 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.520 are currently on the books work. Right now, when someone 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.760 tries to buy a firearm from a federally licensed gun dealer, 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.440 the dealer is required to contact the federal government's National 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.559 Instant Criminal Background Check System, either electronically or by phone. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.840 The buyer fills out a form that asks them about 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.000 a bunch of things, past criminal indictments and convictions, use 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.680 of drugs, court ordered confinement in mental institutions, dishonorable discharges 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.840 and convictions in military courts, convictions for domestic violence, and 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.920 whether the person is a legal resident of the United States. 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.840 After that, these systems staff performs a background check to 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.680 verify that the buyer is eligible to purchase or own 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:21.400 a firearm. This background check system, which was created by 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.079 the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of and went online, 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.720 has conducted more than three hundred million checks on gun purchases. 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.560 Most purchasers passed the screening, but more than one point 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.680 five million would be gun buyers have been rejected, according 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:41.799 to the FBI. Even so, critics point to major loopholes 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.920 in the screening process of people who don't make a 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.640 business of selling firearms but only make occasional sales or 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.639 purchases are exempt from the background check requirement unless they're 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.919 a seller who has reason to believe that a purchaser 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.440 might be legally barred from owning a gun. Additionally, Federal 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.560 logged doesn't established a clear line for when a gun 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.360 seller becomes a professional dealer, of just a vague rule 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.840 of thumb that someone who repetitively sells guns with the 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.280 motive of making a profit must be licensed and conduct 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:19.399 background checks. That gaping gray area enables non licensed dealers 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.280 to sell scores of weapons at gun shows or via 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:28.120 Internet ads, or you know wherever, to whoever's buying. A 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.600 study that was conducted by Northeastern University and Harvard University 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.720 researchers and published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:39.280 in estimated that of gun owners who had obtained a 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.160 weapon in the previous two years had done so without 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:47.000 going through a background check, and of prison inmates who 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.240 had been prohibited from owning the gun that they used 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.200 in a crime had obtained it through an unlicensed seller. 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.800 HR eight, one of the proposed laws, would eliminate the 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:01.440 private sales loophole by making such transactions a eagle. Instead, 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.440 private sellers would be required to hand the weapon over 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.360 to a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer, who would then 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.880 comply with the background check requirement before transferring the weapon 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.240 to the buyer. HR eight would still allow a few exceptions. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.960 Law enforcement agencies would be allowed to do transfers without 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.480 background checks, as would family members giving weapons to other 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.000 family members. A person could also inherit weapons without a 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.640 background check. Finally, in the case of an eminent threat 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.159 of bodily harm or death, a person could give a 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.840 weapon to someone else to protect themselves, as long as 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:40.560 the weapon was returned when the threat went away. The 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.000 idea of universal or nearly universal background checks is supported 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.680 by the majority of the American public. In April one 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.760 Quinnipiac University poll, for example, found that eight percent of 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.560 Americans favor such a requirement, while only eight percent oppose 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:01.600 universal background checks. A March one Morning Consult poll had 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.040 a similar result, with eighty four percent of voters, including 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:11.680 seventy percent of Republicans, supporting mandatory screening before gun sales. Eighteen. 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.960 Gallop Pole found that Americans favored mandatory checks by a 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:20.839 nine to seven percent margin before the article This episode 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.520 is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with Dan Flannery, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.800 a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and the director of 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.880 the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:34.279 Case Western Reserve University. He said that enacting universal background 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.839 checks is an important first step toward reducing gun violence, 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.120 but pet cautions that the information reported in the system 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.760 is limited and may not necessarily detect everyone who is 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.839 a threat. The teenage gunman in the Valdi shootings, for example, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.719 legally bought two rifles from federally licensed gun store shortly 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.240 after his eighteenth birthday. Grown check system didn't detect the 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.359 disturbing behaviors noticed by friend and relatives that have since 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:06.640 come to light. Flannery said having more mental health resources 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.640 and thread assessment protocols for when kids who are identified 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.440 who may be at risk. Having those systems of supports 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.760 in place is another thing. Many of the school shooters, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.000 in particular, have told someone else personally or on social 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.560 media of their attempt, and there were opportunities to intervene. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.360 Proponents of HR eight face a difficult challenge in the Senate, 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.000 where sixty votes are necessary for passage. When the New 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.799 York Times survey GOP senators, it found that only four 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.760 out of fifty were even open to considering universal background checks. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.159 Though the Democrats could change the rule to allow a 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.080 straight majority vote, some conservative Democrats opposed such a move 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.320 and favor a different compromise in that vein. A new 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.240 package of gun control legislation passed in a House vote 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.599 on June eight, called the Protecting Our Kids Act. It 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.440 passed two twenty three to two oh four, with five 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.080 Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it and two 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.040 Democrats voting against it. The Act includes bills that would 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.360 raise the age necessary to purchase or receive particular types 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.440 of semi automatic firearms from eighteen years to twenty one years. 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.320 It would establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, established 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.080 frameworks for regulating firearms without serial numbers and the storage 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:26.080 of firearms, and prohibit large capacity magazines. And create a 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.720 governmental buyback program for people who currently own those. News 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:32.880 about this new act is still coming in as we 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.680 record this episode, but experts expected to face difficulty in 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.840 the Senate as well. How Stuff Works also spoke with 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.200 Dave Chapman. He's a twenty five year veteran of the 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.760 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the a 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.720 t F, and was President Joe Biden's initial choice to 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.440 head that bureau. He said that conducting background checks on 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.520 nearly all gun purchasers quote would make an extraordinary difference 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.320 in preventing gun violence in this country. He also called 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.960 for raising the federal minimum age for purchasing a rifle, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.840 which again is currently eighteen years quote. Until we change that, 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.280 a high school senior can roll into a gun shop 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.080 and lawfully by and assualt rifle in the same one 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.040 I carried on a t F squat team, nothing's ever 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:25.679 going to change. Today's episode is based on the article 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.960 HR eight mandates gun background checks? Why is it stuck 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.040 in the Senate? On how stuff works dot com? Written 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.959 by Patrick J. Keaiger. Brainstuff is production of I Heart 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.080 Radio in partnership with How Stuff Works dot com and 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.600 it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts My Heart Radio, 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.520 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:43.840 listen to your favorite shows.