Schumer: Federal Database That Helps Keep Guns out of the Hands of the Mentally Ill is Threatened by House Gop Cuts; in Wake of Tucson Shooting, Program is Needed Now More Than Ever Before

Press Release

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer yesterday called on the House Appropriations committee to halt its planned cuts for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that helps keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. The system, set up as part of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, authorized funds for states to improve their criminal record sharing systems and get their records into NICS so that pre-purchase background checks will better catch people who are prohibited from purchasing firearms. However, under current House Appropriations committee proposals to roll back all funding to 2008 levels, funding for this legislation would be eliminated entirely and would hamper the ability of states and the federal government to ensure that mentally ill individuals, like Jared Loughner, are not legally allowed to purchase a firearm. In a letter to Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers and Ranking Committee Member Norm Dicks, Schumer urged the committee to continue funding the NICS Improvement Act to help prevent firearms from falling into the hands of the mentally disturbed in the future.

"The shooting in Tucson showed how easy it is for a mentally deranged person to get a gun and the need for greater information sharing to make sure it never happens again," said Schumer. "By gutting funding for our only program that helps keep guns out of the hands of people like Jared Loughner and the Virginia Tech shooter, we would take a major step backwards in our efforts to keep guns out of the hands of deranged individuals."

The shooting near Tucson, Arizona, which claimed the lives of six individuals and wounded 14 others, underscores the danger of firearms falling into hands of the mentally disturbed. The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 works to prevent dangerous individuals like Jared Loughner from acquiring firearms. The Act, however, currently funded at $325 million (a year?), would be completely defunded by the cuts being offered by the House GOP.

When a person attempts to purchase a firearm, a background check is run through the NICS system. A NICS call center representative (or automated system) runs a check of several databases to see if the purchaser has a record prohibiting him or her from buying a gun under federal law. The majority of potential gun buyers are either approved or denied almost instantly. But if the computer search is unable to reach a final determination, a NICS representative will conduct a manual search for missing information that will allow NICS to make a final determination. In such a situation, the NICS representative must attempt to get the missing information by calling state and local courthouses, judges, clerks, or even law enforcement officers to get the information. If the NICS representative cannot get an answer in three days, the gun dealer automatically has permission to sell the gun to the buyer.

A criminal background check is only as good as the records that the states provide to the system. Recent reports point to the success of NICS funding helping states share criminal data and keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Before passage of this legislation in 2007, millions of criminal and mental health records were inaccessible to the NICS system, mostly because state and local governments lacked the money to submit the records. After passage of this legislation, significant incentives were provided to states that have good reporting records. States who comply are required to share information--such as an individual's relevant, disqualifying history of mental illness--with the FBI. The law also requires federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security to make their records available to the NICS database to ensure timely and thorough background checks of those who purchase guns. The bill also required states to set up procedures whereby a person who previously had been deemed mentally ill can petition to regain the right to own a firearm.

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