Term Paper on "Brady Bill"

Term Paper 5 pages (1676 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Brady Bill

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, most frequently referred to as simply the Brady Bill, established a national five-day waiting period for retail handgun purchases (Anderson, 1996). The bill was named for James Brady, the White House press secretary wounded in John Hinckley's attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The waiting period was intended to provide time for police to undertake criminal-records checks of prospective handgun purchasers so that they could enforce existing prohibitions on handgun purchase by (Brady Act background checks: The first seven months, 2000).

Convicted felons and people under indictment for a felony

Fugitives from justice

Unlawful drug users or drug addicts

Individuals who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or determined to be mentally incompetent

Illegal aliens and legal aliens admitted under a non-immigrant visa

Individuals who have been dishonorably discharged from the military

Persons who have renounced their American citizenship

Persons subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders

Persons convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.

The Brady Bill only applies gun sales by licensed gun dealers; sales by non-dealers are exempt (Anderson, 1996).

Federal officials had estimated that somewhere between two and six percent of the overall 7.5 million annual firearms sales would likely be stopped under the Brady legislation (Thomas, 1993). They based these estimates on data from states that already had waiting periods and background checks for handguns similar to what the Brady Bill would require. From 1989 until 1993, California, Florida, Virginia and Maryland had used these techniques to prevent more than 47,000 purchases by individuals who were banned from buying firearms. Despite this success, twenty-five states had absolutely no background checks or waiting periods for purchasing guns and others had vary lax procedures. As a result, thousands of prohibited persons routinely walked into gun stores and purchased guns. Therefore, the Brady Bill wanted to make sure that all states would screen gun purchases in a reasonable, consistent and responsible manner.

The waiting period imposed by the Brady Bill would be dropped after five years, when a national computerized instant-check system (NICS) maintained by the Department of Justice was slated to become operational (Thomas, 1993). In the interim, the Brady Bill required that background checks must be performed by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the prospective purchaser's place of residence. Sheriffs Richard Mack of Graham County, Arizona and Jay Printz of Ravilli County, Montana challenged the Brady Act in their local federal district courts (Mack v. U.S., 9th Circuit oks Brady Bill). They stated that as sheriffs in rural counties with limited staffs and resources, all of the research requirements imposed by the Brady Bill took so much of their time that they were unable to perform their regular county duties. Their case did not dispute that the regulation of the sales of handguns lies well within the broad commerce power of Congress. Rather, the issue was whether the manner in which Congress had chosen to regulate the Brady Act violated the Tenth Amendment. The issue would go all the way to the Supreme Court where, in 1997, it ruled that the provision compelling state and local law enforcement officials to perform the background checks mandated by federal law violated the Tenth Amendment's concepts of federalism and the unitary executive (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act). Fortunately, the NICS became operational a year after the ruling, eliminating the issue that had caused the initial dispute over the implementation of the Brady Bill.

The Brady Bill has been a success before and after NICS became operational. Since the Brady Bill took effect in February 1994 though December 1997, presales checks stopped 242,000 purchases out of a total of 10,356,000 purchase applications (Did Brady bill block handgun sales?, 1998).

In 1997, the final year before NICS took over, checks blocked 69,000 handgun sales (Did Brady bill block handgun sales?, 1998). This number represented 2.7% of the 2,574,000 nationwide applications. More than sixty-one rejections in 1997 were because the applicant had a felony conviction or was under felony indictment. Between November 1998, when the NICS was implemented, and December 31, 2002, the NICS has processed a total of 35,938,513 background checks (FBI NICS operations report, 2003).

Out of the checks, the total number of denials has been more than 563,000. As of December 31, 2002, the NICS had denied a total of 281,883 firearm transfers to prohibited individuals and the Point of Contact (POC) states had denied about the same number of gun transfers. Fourteen states have agencies acting on behalf of the NICS in a full POC capacity, meaning they conduct their own state background checks on Federal Firearms Licensees gun transactions by electronically accessing the NICS.

Opponents of the Brady Bill believe that it doesn't work and that it is an unnecessary restriction on gun rights. They claim that it hasn't reduced violent crimes or homicides. As evidence, they point to a statistical analysis published by the American Medical Association in 2000 that says,

Our analyses provide no evidence that implementation of the Brady Act was associated with a reduction in homicide rates. In particular, we find no differences in homicide or firearm homicide rates to adult victims in the 32 treatment states directly subject to the Brady Act provisions compared with the remaining control states." (Ludwig and Cook, 2000)

The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun lobby, opposes gun control measures in general because it says it believes they would conflict with the Second Amendmen's right to keep and bear arms and the right to privacy of law-abiding gun owners (National Rifle Association). It asserts that any attempt to regulate arms conflicts with the second clause of the amendment; the "right to keep and bear arms." The NRA also opposed the Brady Bill in the courts on Tenth Amendment grounds that Congress cannot directly compel the States to enforce federal regulations. Opponents of the Brady Bill were also concerned that it would open the door for more gun control.

Despite all they tell us about safeguards, an instant check system is simply another step toward national gun registration," said Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.(cited in Schneider, 1994).

Nine out of ten Americans were in favor of the Brady Bill as well as five out of six gun owners (Kahane, 1999). Even though the Brady Bill was supported by the public, it took a long and hard battle for it to overcome political obtacles as explained by political columnist Gustaitis (2004). A version of the Brady Bill was first introduced in Congress in 1987, but failed to pass due to opposition from the NRA and Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. But, Reagan would later change his mind and Bush eventually promised support if Congress inidicated that it would pass his anti-crime proposals. In May 1991, the House passed the Brady bill by a margin of 239-186. 179 Democrates and 60 Republicans had voted in favor of the bill. However, the bill failed to get Senate approval. Yet, another version of the bill failed the next year because of a Republican filibuster. The passage of the bill became more promising when President Bill Clinton took office in 1993. He criticized the NRA, saying it was wrong to "oppose every attempt to bring some safety and some rationality into the way we handle some of the serious criminal problems we have." (cited in Gustaitis, 2004). The Brady bill was again up for consideration and cleared Congress on November 24, 1993.

The basics facts of the Brady Bill implementation suggest that it is blocking a fair number of gun sells to people who simply shouldn't have them, at least in the short run. Certainly, most sane people would agree that people such as convicted felons shouldn't be allowed to… READ MORE

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