Gun Violence Prevention Issue Brief

To date, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System has prevented nearly 1.8 million criminals and other prohibited purchasers from buying guns; yet currently as many as 40% of all guns are sold to individuals without the benefit of a thorough background check, including those with mental health conditions, due to loopholes in the law. The NAACP supports extending a background check to all purchases or transfers of firearms. On December 7, 2017, the U.S. House passed the NAACP-opposed legislation, H.R. 38, the "Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act." This legislation contained an NAACP-supported provision, the text of the Fix NICS Act of 2017, which ensures that federal and state authorities comply with existing law and accurately report relevant criminal history records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The bill incentivizes and assists states in improving their overall reporting and penalizes federal agencies which fail to properly report relevant records.

Assault weapons are military-style weapons of war, made for offensive military battlefields. They are weapons of choice for gangs, drug dealers, police murderers and mass murderers and have no place in civilized society. Furthermore, high capacity ammunition clips allow shooters to shoot as many as 100 bullets before stopping to reload. In the cases of numerous mass shootings, killers were stopped only when they were forced to pause to reload their weapons.

Some straw purchases are small: A person buys one or more guns for a convicted criminal, or someone with a history of mental illness or domestic abuse, who would never get through a background check. Other purchases are larger: Gun traffickers recruit buyers with clean records to assemble arsenals to sell on the black market or transfer to drug cartels. Under current law, there is no specific statute that makes it illegal to act as a straw purchaser of any size of firearms.

If an individual exhibits behavior which warrants placement on the "terror watch list," he or she should be prohibited from owning a gun, until such time as he or she is no longer a suspect.

For 20 years Congress has voted to deny funding and effectively ban the CDC from doing critical research to prevent gun violence. A central part of preventing future tragedies as a result of gun violence is through conducting rigorous scientific research as this has been a proven successful approach in reducing deaths due to other injuries, including automobile injuries. We support repealing the ban and allowing the science to move forward.

By strengthening the background check system, we will be saving lives. Federal and state authorities should be incentivized and assisted in complying with existing law and accurately report relevant criminal history records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Furthermore, federal agencies which fail to properly report relevant records should be penalized. 

Currently, Americans are able to obtain silencers legally after undergoing a thorough background check process and registering the silencer with law enforcement. As a result of this effective regulation, silencers are rarely used in crime. Some Members of Congress would remove these regulations, making it easy for individuals who are unable to pass a background check - felons, domestic abusers, and people suffering a mental health crisis - to obtain these dangerous weapon enhancements through unregulated private sales, on the internet, and at gun shows — and then use them in violent crime. The NAACP supports current law: silencers make firearms all the more dangerous. The sound of a gunshot alerts people, including law enforcement officials, to what is going on, therefore giving them the opportunity to take cover or take action to prevent more tragedy. 

Currently, Americans are able to obtain silencers legally after undergoing a thorough background check process and registering the silencer with law enforcement. As a result of this effective regulation, silencers are rarely used in crime. Some Members of Congress would remove these regulations, making it easy for individuals who are unable to pass a background check - felons, domestic abusers, and people suffering a mental health crisis - to obtain these dangerous weapon enhancements through unregulated private sales, on the internet, and at gun shows — and then use them in violent crime. The NAACP supports current law: silencers make firearms all the more dangerous. The sound of a gunshot alerts people, including law enforcement officials, to what is going on, therefore giving them the opportunity to take cover or take action to prevent more tragedy. 

Ballistic identification is the science of using a ballistic fingerprint to identify the specific firearm used in a shooting. A comprehensive ballistic identification system would connect a bullet or cartridge case recovered at a crime scene directly to the make, model and serial number of the gun from which it was fired. A technology called "microstamping" has made comprehensive ballistic identification a reality. Microstamping technology utilizes lasers to make microscopic engravings on the breech face and firing pin of a gun. As the gun is fired, a code identifying the weapon's serial number is stamped onto the cartridge. This enables police to trace a gun without ever physically recovering it. A traced firearm is a valuable lead in a criminal investigation, because investigators can then connect that weapon to its first purchaser, who may become either a suspect or a source of information helpful to the investigation. On October 13, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made history by signing a first-of-its-kind microstamping bill into law. The District of Columbia enacted a similar microstamping law in January 2009. Several other states, and the U.S. Congress, are now considering microstamping legislation. The technology promises to revolutionize the way law enforcement officials investigate homicides and other gun crimes.

Currently, the concealed carry permit for each state varies, and each state determines whether it will recognize the permits of other states. Some states have strong laws regarding who can obtain a concealed carry permit and require training and a thorough evaluation. Other states issue concealed carry permits using recklessly lower standards, even to nonresidents. The 12 states with the loosest laws do not require a permit at all. In these unregulated carry states a resident of that state may carry a concealed firearm automatically. Sadly, on December 7, 2017, the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. This bill would permit any individual authorized by their home state to carry a concealed handgun to also carry that concealed weapon in any other state that permits the carrying of concealed weapons.

The traditional presumption in the law — from the advent of the Hebrew Bible through the creation of Roman law, English common law, and American law — has been that if you could spare human life, it was incumbent upon you to do so. With "Stand Your Ground" (aka "Shoot First") laws, 3,000 years of jurisprudence has been turned on its head. Now you can provoke a fight, and if losing that fight, under the "Stand Your Ground" laws you can legally kill the person you attacked. This represents a dangerous and unprecedented escalation in the use of force in the public space, allowing individuals to kill when they merely fear "great bodily harm" (i.e., a fistfight, shoving match, etc.). The concept of responding with proportional force has been obliterated. Additionally, "Stand Your Ground" laws remove the duty to retreat from a conflict in public, allowing individuals to shoot and kill even when they could otherwise walk away safely from an altercation. The message to would-be killers is now clear. You need not fear carrying your gun in public, or using it. If you do, just make sure you are the only one remaining to testify about the nature of the confrontation in question.

Cities and other local jurisdictions wield important power over the gun industry. In the aggregate, municipal governments are some of the largest purchasers of guns nationally due to their need to outfit local law enforcement departments. Firearms manufacturers and distributors understand the importance of this critical market segment and give it substantial attention. This gives cities considerable buyer power in their dealings with the gun industry. Cities have a unique opportunity to curb the violence caused by gun trafficking. A city purchasing firearms for its law enforcement department can use its "buyer power" to create incentives for firearm manufacturers to employ "countermarketing" strategies to ensure that their retailers are using all available procedures to prevent illegal firearms diversion. Manufacturers would be obliged to listen and change their policies to compete for this valuable market share. In this way, gun manufacturers and cities could begin to work together in a collaborative, positive fashion.