Background Checks
When firearms are sold without background checks, our schools,
communities, and public places are less safe. That’s why Sandy Hook Promise
supports legislation to expand the requirement for background checks.
When firearms are sold without background checks, our schools,
communities, and public places are less safe. That’s why Sandy Hook Promise
supports legislation to expand the requirement for background checks.
The Biden administration announced the Department of Justice’s final rule that strongly narrows the private gun sale loophole. The move represents the largest step toward expanding the background checks system since the passage of the Brady Act more than 30 years ago, and a major victory for Sandy Hook Promise, the foremost advocate for bipartisan laws to expand background checks since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. Learn more about the new regulations that expand background checks and help close dangerous loopholes. Read our statement.
A loophole in our current law gives prohibited people an easy and dangerous way to buy guns. Federal law only requires background checks when the gun seller is a licensed dealer. Unlicensed private sellers, including sales at gun shows and online, aren’t required to perform background checks on the people they sell guns to. In 2015, 22% of Americans who had acquired a gun in the two years prior reported doing so without a background check.2
This loophole has devastating consequences. In Midland-Odessa, TX in 2019, the shooter failed a background check at a licensed dealer, but he went on to purchase his weapons online. Seven people were killed.
State laws that have closed the private sale loophole and expanded background checks for all handgun sales are associated with lower rates of firearm homicides, suicides and gun trafficking.3
Yes. More than 97% of Americans, including gun owners, support universal background checks4, as well as roughly 80% of Republicans.5
At least 90% of NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) background checks provide an answer almost immediately.6 The average processing time for an electronic NICS check is 107 seconds.7
The FBI’s quality control evaluations suggest that background checks are accurate approximately 99.3 to 99.8% of the time.8 Background checks rarely provide false-positive results.
As of January 2020, 21 states (CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IA, IL, MA, MD, MI, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OR, PA, RI, VT, and WA) and DC have passed legislation to extend the federal background check requirement to cover at least some forms of private sale.9
Both chambers of Congress have introduced the Background Checks Expansion Act of 2023 (S.494 / H.R.715). If signed into law, nearly every gun sale occurring in the U.S. would be subject to a background check, including so-called “private sales” at gun shows and over the internet.
We now call on the Senate to take action. Sign the Petition
1. Karberg JC, et al., “Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 2015—Statistical Tables,” US Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics (2017).
2. Miller M, Hepburn L, Azrael D. Firearm acquisition without background checks: results of a national survey. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2017; 166(4):233-239
3. Webster D, Crifasi CK, Vernick JS. Effects of Missouri’s Repeal of Its Handgun Purchaser Licensing Law on Homicides. J Urban Health. 2014 Jun; 91(3):598-601.
4. Quinnipiac University Poll. U.S. Support For Gun Control Tops 2-1, Highest Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Let Dreamers Stay, 80 Percent Of Voters Say. Feb. 20, 2018.
5. Quinnipiac University. U.S. Voters Oppose Trump Emergency Powers On Wall 2-1 Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; 86% Back Democrats’ Bill On Gun Background Checks. March 6, 2019.
6. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services. National Instant Criminal Background Check System Celebrates 20 Years of Service. November 30, 2018.
7. Federal Bureau of Investigation. About NICS. (n.d.).
8. Office of the Inspector General, “Audit of the Handling of Firearms Purchase Denials Through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” US Department of Justice, September 2016.
9. Giffords Law Center. Universal Background Checks. (n.d.).