Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogebam here. In the aftermath of the most recent mass shootings in the United States, there's been a surge of conversation about HR eight, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of This is a longstalled piece of legislation that would require background checks for all gun purchases across
the nation. Sponsored by California Democrat Representative Mike Thompson, the bill was passed by the U. S. House in March by a narrow two to three vote, getting support from
just eight Republican legislators. In the Senate, the bill has languished for months due to the reality that it stood little chance of passage in that chamber because it's split fifty fifty Republican and Democrat and would need to attract at least ten Republican supporters in order to prevent a filibuster by opponents and moved to a final vote on the law, but Senate Democrats have indicated that despite the odds against them, they're nevertheless hoping to put the bill
on the legislative calendar should that plan come to fruition. Another gun control bill passed by the House. HR fourty six would be put to a vote as well. This bill would increase to ten days the time a purchaser must wait for a background check. And now, as of early June, there's a new package of gun control legislation on the table, the Protecting Our Kids Act. So today let's talk about these bills and how the laws that
are currently on the books work. Right now, when someone tries to buy a firearm from a federally licensed gun dealer, the dealer is required to contact the federal government's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, either electronically or by phone.
The buyer fills out a form that asks them about a bunch of things, past criminal indictments and convictions, use of drugs, court ordered confinement in mental institutions, dishonorable discharges and convictions in military courts, convictions for domestic violence, and whether the person is a legal resident of the United States. After that, these systems staff performs a background check to verify that the buyer is eligible to purchase or own
a firearm. This background check system, which was created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of and went online, has conducted more than three hundred million checks on gun purchases. Most purchasers passed the screening, but more than one point five million would be gun buyers have been rejected, according
to the FBI. Even so, critics point to major loopholes in the screening process of people who don't make a business of selling firearms but only make occasional sales or purchases are exempt from the background check requirement unless they're a seller who has reason to believe that a purchaser
might be legally barred from owning a gun. Additionally, Federal logged doesn't established a clear line for when a gun seller becomes a professional dealer, of just a vague rule of thumb that someone who repetitively sells guns with the motive of making a profit must be licensed and conduct background checks. That gaping gray area enables non licensed dealers to sell scores of weapons at gun shows or via
Internet ads, or you know wherever, to whoever's buying. A study that was conducted by Northeastern University and Harvard University researchers and published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine in estimated that of gun owners who had obtained a weapon in the previous two years had done so without going through a background check, and of prison inmates who had been prohibited from owning the gun that they used in a crime had obtained it through an unlicensed seller.
HR eight, one of the proposed laws, would eliminate the private sales loophole by making such transactions a eagle. Instead, private sellers would be required to hand the weapon over to a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer, who would then comply with the background check requirement before transferring the weapon to the buyer. HR eight would still allow a few exceptions.
Law enforcement agencies would be allowed to do transfers without background checks, as would family members giving weapons to other family members. A person could also inherit weapons without a background check. Finally, in the case of an eminent threat of bodily harm or death, a person could give a weapon to someone else to protect themselves, as long as the weapon was returned when the threat went away. The idea of universal or nearly universal background checks is supported
by the majority of the American public. In April one Quinnipiac University poll, for example, found that eight percent of Americans favor such a requirement, while only eight percent oppose universal background checks. A March one Morning Consult poll had a similar result, with eighty four percent of voters, including seventy percent of Republicans, supporting mandatory screening before gun sales. Eighteen.
Gallop Pole found that Americans favored mandatory checks by a nine to seven percent margin before the article This episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with Dan Flannery, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and the director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at
Case Western Reserve University. He said that enacting universal background checks is an important first step toward reducing gun violence, but pet cautions that the information reported in the system is limited and may not necessarily detect everyone who is a threat. The teenage gunman in the Valdi shootings, for example, legally bought two rifles from federally licensed gun store shortly
after his eighteenth birthday. Grown check system didn't detect the disturbing behaviors noticed by friend and relatives that have since come to light. Flannery said having more mental health resources and thread assessment protocols for when kids who are identified who may be at risk. Having those systems of supports
in place is another thing. Many of the school shooters, in particular, have told someone else personally or on social media of their attempt, and there were opportunities to intervene. Proponents of HR eight face a difficult challenge in the Senate, where sixty votes are necessary for passage. When the New York Times survey GOP senators, it found that only four out of fifty were even open to considering universal background checks.
Though the Democrats could change the rule to allow a straight majority vote, some conservative Democrats opposed such a move and favor a different compromise in that vein. A new package of gun control legislation passed in a House vote on June eight, called the Protecting Our Kids Act. It passed two twenty three to two oh four, with five Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it and two
Democrats voting against it. The Act includes bills that would raise the age necessary to purchase or receive particular types of semi automatic firearms from eighteen years to twenty one years. It would establish new federal offenses for gun trafficking, established frameworks for regulating firearms without serial numbers and the storage of firearms, and prohibit large capacity magazines. And create a
governmental buyback program for people who currently own those. News about this new act is still coming in as we record this episode, but experts expected to face difficulty in the Senate as well. How Stuff Works also spoke with Dave Chapman. He's a twenty five year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the a t F, and was President Joe Biden's initial choice to
head that bureau. He said that conducting background checks on nearly all gun purchasers quote would make an extraordinary difference in preventing gun violence in this country. He also called for raising the federal minimum age for purchasing a rifle, which again is currently eighteen years quote. Until we change that, a high school senior can roll into a gun shop and lawfully by and assualt rifle in the same one I carried on a t F squat team, nothing's ever
going to change. Today's episode is based on the article HR eight mandates gun background checks? Why is it stuck in the Senate? On how stuff works dot com? Written by Patrick J. Keaiger. Brainstuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with How Stuff Works dot com and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.