Rivalarrival , 1 month ago

Truly “Universal” background checks are just a way of criminalizing the overwhelming majority of “transfers” between known and trusted parties. We don’t need this sort of “universal” background check. This approach is only intended to cast FUD on ownership.

The current law basically says it is illegal to “knowingly” transfer a gun to a prohibited person. The problem is that there is no reliable, publicly-accessible means for a private individual to “know” that an individual is prohibited. NICS checks are not available to the public; they are only available to FFL dealers. So long as the recipient doesn’t disclose their prohibited status, it is basically impossible to prove a private seller “knew” the buyer was prohibited.

The solution should be obvious: establish a means of publicly accessing NICS. Have the buyer perform a check in themselves, and provide the seller with a verification code to securely and confidentially access the results of that check.

With that access in place, a seller can know, and can legally be expected to know the status of a buyer. The “knowingly” criteria can now be presumed to have been met, and willful ignorance on the part of the seller is no longer a viable defense.

This approach makes it possible to prosecute 100% of private sellers who transfer to felons, without criminalizing any innocent transfers. It accomplishes every legitimate purpose of “universal” background checks, without any of the harmful, “unintended” FUD that truly universal checks would impose.