Background Checks for Thousands Not Completed, GAO Says
by Dan Eggen, The Washington Post
Nearly 3,000 domestic abusers bought firearms between 1998 and 2001, despite laws designed to prevent such purchases, because the FBI was unable to complete criminal background checks before the sales went through, according to a congressional study.
The General Accounting Office, in a draft report obtained by The Washington Post, found that federal authorities have had to retrieve guns from those convicts and more than 8,000 others because they had been wrongly allowed to buy the weapons.
While most of the purchasers were felons, more than a quarter of the cases involved people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses whose criminal pasts were difficult for authorities to assess in determining whether to approve gun purchases. Usually this occurred because of haphazard record-keeping and other problems, the study found.
The large number of domestic abusers who were able to buy weapons underscores a chronic problem with the background check system implemented under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and increases the risk that violent spouses might take advantage of the loophole, according to the GAO study and victim advocacy groups.
“The weapon can be used in a homicide or to terrorize battered women and their children,” said Lynn Rosenthal, executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “These cases are falling through the cracks.”
Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s 15,000 annual homicides involve the killing of a spouse or partner. Almost all victims are women, and most are killed with a firearm, according to federal statistics.
The study, which was requested by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), is likely to play a role in the debate on Capitol Hill over proposals to conduct background checks at gun shows, an issue that hinges in part on how much time the FBI should be given to complete the task.
The GAO study argues that federal authorities, who are now limited to a three-day check before a purchase goes through, should be allowed as much as 30 days to research questionable cases before a sale is approved, noting that a relatively small number of buyers would be affected. Some members of Congress, by contrast, have recommended shrinking the background check time to 24 hours in some cases.
Conyers, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the report is “proof positive that shortening background check times will have real consequences for battered women: Their abusers will get guns. . . . On the issue of the time allotted for background checks, it is clear we need more time, not less.”
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said the group could not comment on the GAO report until it has had a chance to review it. The NRA has consistently opposed longer background check times and is fighting efforts to require background checks at gun shows.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft last year ordered studies of record-keeping problems related to the National Instant Check System, or NICS, including the records of people convicted of domestic violence and of people with mental health problems.
Justice Department officials say NICS is relatively adept at identifying people who should be barred from buying guns because of felony convictions, restraining orders and other serious criminal matters. That information is quickly made available to gun sellers, who are required to reject such purchases.
During the three years studied, the NICS system blocked nearly 200,000 gun purchases, the report shows.
But the system is less useful in flagging misdemeanor domestic abuse convictions or findings of mental illness, which are more likely to be recorded on paper only and often require extensive research to locate, officials said.
“We acknowledge that state laws and procedures are currently inadequate to allow the NICS to function correctly to keep guns out of the hands of those who commit crimes of domestic violence,” one Justice official said. “It’s clear that state records are incomplete in this area, and we are directing resources to try and correct the problem.”
The review examined the first three years of the NICS system, which was established to carry out the computerized background checks required under the Brady Act. Most of the checks between November 1998 and last fall -- about 95 percent -- were completed within three business days. However, if a check is not completed within three days, the sale is allowed to proceed by default.
In cases in which the FBI discovers that the gun sale should not have been allowed, it asks the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to seize the weapon from the buyer.
Those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges make up about 14 percent of the total number of denials but 26 percent of the cases in which the ATF had to retrieve a weapon, the GAO found. The study says this difference was “disproportionately large” and indicates that the buyers “may pose risks to public safety.”
Matt Nosanchuk, legal director of the Violence Policy Center, a group that favors more restrictions on gun purchases, said proposals to shorten the time allowed for background checks “would mean that more women and children would be victims of gun violence.”