NICS Improvement Act of 2005″ (H.R. 1415) – Update
See past coverage here. Gun Owners of America doesn’t like it:
A Second Amendment group is warning gun owners that a “massive gun control bill” is now working its way through Congress — and is surprisingly close to becoming law.
Gun Owners of America also admits that it is the only national pro-gun group to oppose the “NICS Improvement Act of 2005” (H.R. 1415).
Introduced by gun control advocate Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, H.R. 1415 is intended to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which screens would-be gun buyers for mental problems or criminal convictions that would bar them from buying guns.
Most background checks are processed through NICS in seconds, but some are delayed if the FBI lacks complete, updated, and automated information from the states.
The bill notes that approximately 24 million criminal records are not automated or not accessible to NICS; and another 16 million criminal records are not up to date. Some lack information on whether an arrested person was convicted or acquitted, for example.
Many states have failed to computerize the necessary information and make it available to NICS in a “usable format,” and that’s what the McCarthy bill would address.
But Gun Owners of America warns that the bill would give the states hundreds of millions of dollars to “further prop up the unconstitutional Brady Law.” GOA argues that the federal government lacks the authority to conduct background checks on gun buyers under the Second and Tenth Amendments.
