The basic premise of the universal background check system is that people deemed “high risk” are prohibited from purchasing firearms. This risk assessment is not based on causation, but on correlation – the assumption that past behaviors may indicate a predisposition to future violence.
In actual practice, this predictive model fails. A large chunk of those convicted of murder – including mass shooters – had largely clean records until their crimes. To put it more bluntly, prisoners sitting on death row didn’t become killers until they killed somebody.
These failures don’t mean we should give up, but doubling down on a background check system we know consistently fails is not a rational solution.
They Don’t Actually Prevent Crime
Universal background checks have been completely ineffective at stopping criminals from obtaining firearms. This is largely because most prohibited peoples acquire firearms through unlawful means – theft, black market, and using straw purchasers.
Even if every legal sale goes through a universal background check and is registered, it wouldn’t stop someone with criminal intent from using a stolen gun, knife, bat, or their bare hands. Background checks may make it difficult to stop a person from obtaining a firearm lawfully, but it doesn’t prevent someone with the intent to commit violence from doing the violent act, nor does it prevent them from getting the firearm unlawfully (it may even incentivize them to do so unlawfully).
They Require Effective Oversight
A universal background check system is only as good as the people running in it. Government agencies – from the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) to Veteran’s Affairs (VA) – do not have a reputation for efficiency. The government current struggles quite a lot to manage up to date data and keep accurate records. Keeping such ever-changing records up to date for over 300 million people is simply an enormous and error-prone task.
With over 10 years experience running background checks for firearms purchasers in California – and all firearms sales and transfers must go through the background checks – delays for more time, false denials and undetermined results in which the state officially does not know if the purchaser can purchase the firearm lawfully or not is a regular occurrence.
They Are Largely Not Enforced Already
Why expand background checks when we don’t even enforce the existing ones?
A 2018 GAO report found that of 112,000 prohibited peoples who were caught by the background check system attempting to purchase a firearm, only 12,700 were referred for prosecution – and only 12 were actually prosecuted. In other words, approximately 0.01% of prohibited individuals who were caught by the background check system were actually prosecuted. Less than 1% (actually less than 1% of 1% to be exact).
Even worse, during Operation Fast & Furious the U.S. government allowed over 2,000 prohibited gang-members to purchase firearms for the purposes of tracking the firearms, but the government failed to track more than half the firearms. Several of these firearms turned up at murder scenes.
They Are Not Enforceable
Universal background checks require all firearm transfers and transactions to go through a background check.
But there is simply no enforcement mechanism for this.
If a grandfather wants to give the family hunting shotgun to his grandson or a friend wants to loan his neighbor a gun; these types of transfers will not go through a background check and not only is there no way to force them, but there is no method for Law Enforcement to know that such a transfer took place.
The other wrinkle, is that criminals don’t follow laws to begin with. If a criminal were to sell his stolen firearm to another criminal, they are not going to report it to the government and submit to a universal background check.
There is no feasible way to monitor or enforce private transactions of any of the two aforementioned transfers, nor any other transfer for that matter.
They Are Built For Denials, Not Public Safety
Background checks exist to deny access, not protect rights. And the list of reasons for denials keeps growing – including many non-violent, victimless, or decades-old offenses.
Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense attorney, famously claimed that the average American commits three felonies a day without ever realizing it, he even wrote a book titled, Three Felonies A Day. Any one of these non-violent, victimless felonies that happened decades ago could deny a person’s right to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Even Martha Stewart is barred from firearms ownership for life – for the non-violent, victimless offenses of obstruction and making false statements to federal investigators.
They Delay Rights
As Dr Martin Luther Jr. said, “A right delayed is a right denied” and “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”.
In 2015 Carol Bowne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend while waiting for a firearms permit in New Jersey – 43 days after she applied. Despite having a restraining order against her ex and a clean background, the state’s bureaucracy failed.
Delaying access to a fundamental right – especially for vulnerable individuals – can be a death sentence.
They Turn Rights Into Privileges
Enshrined in our Constitution, right are not granted by the government – they are protected from the government. You are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and cannot be deprived of liberty without due process of law.
Universal background checks flips this universal American principle on its head. You are presumed ineligible to firearms ownership and you can be deprived of that right, until permission is granted by the faceless “system”. That is the definition of turning a right into a privilege.
There Is No “Gun Show Loophole”
The “gun show loophole” does not exist, it is a myth.
A firearms dealer, an individual or individuals licensed by the government to engage in the commerce of firearms, must by law must always run a background check at gun shows – just as they do in stores.
The Bureau of Justice issues findings of where inmates get their guns. A vast minority of violent criminals get them at gun shows, the vast majority are purchasing stolen guns on the streets. The latest survey, Source And Use Of Firearms Involved In Crime: Survey Of Prison Inmates, 2016 concluded that less than 1% of firearms recovered were purchased at gun shows.
Creating new laws to “fix” a loophole that doesn’t exist does not solve the problem we all wish to solve.
They Criminalize The Law-Abiding
Universal background checks can increase crime statistics – not by stopping violent acts, but by turning law-abiding citizens into paper criminals.
People who’ve lawfully transferred firearms down to their children for generations may suddenly be labeled for felons for doing what was always legal. Many will violate the unknowingly – others will do it on purpose as a form of protest. With weak enforcement mechanisms to the law would not be enforced effectively or fairly, and instead of stopping real criminals, it will punish a few regular people who never had any criminal intentions.
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