What is the history of the Brady Bill?
The history of the Brady Bill is, first of all, to start checking the record's to see whether someone trying to get a gun from a federally, licensed dealer, falls within one of the prohibited categories from the 1968 Gun Control Act. And, there was a phase in period over about four years while the National Instacheck Database was set-up. So, at the start there was a waiting period, so federally licensed dealers could check the records. Since 1998, basically, there's been a federal instacheck system, where someone could go into a federally, licensed dealer, fill out the application to buy a gun, and within seven or eight minutes the dealer, usually, will get an all clear on the individual, allowing them to buy the gun What that means is the person hasn't shown up on the list as being a felon or being dangerous to themselves or others because of mental illness. The system has been very effective. It's stopped approximately 1.4 million people from buying guns legally from a licensed dealer. And to me, that shows that the Brady background check system has been a very effective system. However, it's only as strong as the data that's in it. The Virginia Tech killer, for example, should not have been allowed to buy a gun. He had been adjudicated mentally ill, a danger to himself or others because of mental illness. But, those records were not sent by the state of Virginia into the Instacheck System, so he got through that system. But it stopped 1.4 million people from buying guns legally and I think that shows that background checks established by the Brady Bill have been effective and are important.
