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ARS & Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence Release New Report
December 8, 2016 — Today, Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, combat veteran and retired NASA astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, and its partner organization the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, released a new report on the ways state lawmakers can strengthen one of our most valuable tools when it comes to saving lives from gun violence—the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). For the Record: NICS & Public Safety examines the background checks process, the challenges the system faces, and the best practices lawmakers can adopt to improve the quality and number of records in the NICS databases.
In 2014 alone, the NICS database stopped 147,000 prohibited people from buying guns from federally licensed dealers. But too many other prohibited purchasers are slipping through the cracks because of missing or incomplete records in the NICS databases. In 2014, more than 700,000 domestic violence protective orders never made it to the system, despite domestic abuse being a leading cause of gun violence.
This new analysis from the nation’s leading gun law experts is essential to understanding how the background checks process works, and the report sheds light on how making improvements to this complex system of databases can save lives. Our nation desperately needs tools like NICS to be as strong and effective as possible, and improving this system represents a leap forward in the effort to save lives from gunfire.
For the Record: NICS & Public Safety also reveals:
◾The background checks process does not act as a barrier to the legal sale or transfer of a gun—most checks are completed in less than two minutes.
◾At least 20 states have improved the way they report mental health records since 2013, making these pieces of legislation one of the most popular ways to combat gun violence.
◾In recent years, states like Arizona and Virginia have dramatically improved the way they send records to NICS, making it far more difficult for guns to fall into dangerous hands.
http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/2016/12/08/nics/
In 2014 alone, the NICS database stopped 147,000 prohibited people from buying guns from federally licensed dealers. But too many other prohibited purchasers are slipping through the cracks because of missing or incomplete records in the NICS databases. In 2014, more than 700,000 domestic violence protective orders never made it to the system, despite domestic abuse being a leading cause of gun violence.
This new analysis from the nation’s leading gun law experts is essential to understanding how the background checks process works, and the report sheds light on how making improvements to this complex system of databases can save lives. Our nation desperately needs tools like NICS to be as strong and effective as possible, and improving this system represents a leap forward in the effort to save lives from gunfire.
For the Record: NICS & Public Safety also reveals:
◾The background checks process does not act as a barrier to the legal sale or transfer of a gun—most checks are completed in less than two minutes.
◾At least 20 states have improved the way they report mental health records since 2013, making these pieces of legislation one of the most popular ways to combat gun violence.
◾In recent years, states like Arizona and Virginia have dramatically improved the way they send records to NICS, making it far more difficult for guns to fall into dangerous hands.
http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/2016/12/08/nics/
Of course the gun humpers and their right-wing lobbyists will scream that ANY improvements to a background check system is an infringement on their Second amendment "rights." Their hero and leader will of course deny that there is a gun violence problem just like there is absolutely no chance of Russian hacking of our elections. But of course, Herr Trumpenfuhrer -- but of course.