If this administration were really interested in true background checks and not a “under the radar” gun registration, they could facilitate that tomorrow, without any new laws or any significant additional cost. Yet I have yet to see anyone in a position of influence or who had the ear of anyone in this administration, offer the following suggestion.
1. Develop a simple one page form, downloadable from the FBI or ATF web site or a 1,000 other places, with the following:
Part 1 of Form: Space/prompts at the top of the page for the following:
Name of buyer of firearm
Address of buyer
Date of birth of buyer
Social security number of buyer
A space to fill in a “background check reference #.
In the middle of the page would be a tear-line, to separate the top of the form from the bottom of the form, such as :
****************************************************
Below the tear-line would be the following information:
Part 2 of Form:
Name of buyer
Address of buyer
Model and serial number of the weapon being checked
Background check reference #
A statement to the effect:
Under penalty of providing false information as part of a federal firearms background check, which is a federal felony (T18 USC, SS 1001), information provide by buyer of firearm identified above by model and serial number has provided true and accurate information as to his/her identification, on which this background check is being conducted.
Signature of buyer:_____________________________
2. Anyone wishing to transfer a firearm to a buyer would have buyer fill out both the top and bottom with the required information. Seller would fill in the required gun information.
3. The buyer and seller would jointly call the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) with a toll free number, and the seller would provide the name, address, and identifying info for the buyer over the phone to the NICS staff answering the phone. NICS would then advise that the buyer was OK or not OK to purchase the firearm, and provide a reference # that could be used to verify that a background check had taken place if ever needed by the buyer or seller.
4. The seller would then enter the reference # in both Part 1 (top) and Part 2 (bottom) of the form.
He/she would then tear the form along the tear line, and give the top part with the buyer’s personal identifying information to the buyer, and retain the bottom of the form with the buyers name, address, signature statement as to truthfulness of info provided, and the NICS reference #, for their own personal records.
5. NICS could record that simply a background check was conducted, recording only “Name, DOB, SS# of buyer, and if the purchase was approved or denied, and the reference #. Nothing more. No gun info or seller info.
If there was ever a legal need to prove that a background check had been performed, the seller would have a document with a NICS reference number to prove that one had been conducted, and that they transferred a firearm in good faith to someone who legally was qualified to purchase it.
Firearm info, and seller info, would not be conveyed to NICS. Hey, this is a background check on the buyer…nothing more. If we truly want to have background checks and not federal registration, what else is needed? No taxation on transfers, no paying someone to handle the transaction, and no registration.
While the “progressive/socialist” will cry “foul- we can’t trace a firearm if we do it that way” – well, you can’t trace it either if we just keep doing it the way we are doing it now.
And to keep the feds honest, we could all call in regularly with false names, dobs, and SS#s, so that if the feds ever started to go out and try to contact the people who were checked to try and take their guns,they would have 1000s of names and addresses mixed in with the legit ones, that there wouldn’t be enough jackbooted thugs to get anywhere with it....
boomer