Pirate's Cove

This is shocking! We all saw how well the whole system worked for the Parkland shooter, did we not?

Gun background check system riddled with flaws

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.”

Essentially, the database is incomplete, mostly from human error and/or incompetence. So, um, how would Democrats demand for “universal background checks” actually work? How about “closing the gun show loophole”? Realistically, they are not actually concerned with any of these, they just want to make sure the Government knows how many guns you have and what types they are, all the better to confiscate them if they’re able to get their gun banning/grabbing bills through.

“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.

This is a bipartisan bill sponsored by a Democrat, Senator Chris Murphy (Conn), which is being blocked by Democrats, including Murphy, because they want more gun control. However, Cornyn says he has the votes to avoid a filibuster.

If Democrats actually want to reduce criminal use of firearms, this is the type of legislation you start with, one which won’t punish the law abiding citizens and will drastically reduce the number of people who purchase a gun legally when they should be denied.

Meanwhile, the DOJ is looking to enact a regulation that would recodify bump stocks, making them illegal. I’m good with this.