Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Three years ago last Sunday, a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17. The deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history mobilized students and others to demand sane national gun policy, only to be thwarted by an obstinate Republican Party in the thrall of the National Rifle Association. If the Biden administration and the new Democrat-dominated Congress do nothing else in the coming two years, it’s crucial they institute universal background checks and other rational reforms.
Ironically, universal background checks would not have prevented the Parkland shooting, yet the Post-Dispatch editorial board lists such checks as a “rational” response.
In fact, universal background checks would not have prevented the overwhelming majority of mass public attacks that occurred over the last decade, because the attackers acquired their guns at retail via background checks.
Here is just a partial list of mass public attackers who acquired their guns via background checks:
Universal background checks would not have stopped a single one of the above-listed attacks, because the attackers got their guns at retail.
However, universal background checks will make it a crime for a neighbor to sell a 5-shot revolver to a lifelong neighbor or coworker, unless the transaction is carried out via a background check conducted by the FBI.