The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (
Pub.L. 103–159, 107
Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993), often referred to as the Brady Act or the Brady Bill, is an
Act of the United States Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws), or to the general public ( public laws). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both house ...
that mandated
federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States, and imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a background check system in the United States created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Law) of 1993 to prevent firearm sales to people prohibited under the Act. ...
(NICS) was implemented in 1998. The act was appended to the end of Section 922 of title 18, United States Code. The intention of the act was to prevent persons with previous serious convictions from purchasing firearms.
Legislative History
Various iterations of the Brady Bill were discussed and rejected by Congress between 1987 and 1993, when it finally became law.
On February 4, 1987, two Ohio Democrats, Representative Edward F. Feighan and Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum, introduced the Brady Bill for the first time in the 100th Congress.
[Aborn, R. M. (1994). The battle over the brady bill and the future of gun control advocacy. ''Fordham Urb.LJ, 22'', 417.] In its original form, the Bill mandated a seven-day waiting period between the time a person applied for a handgun and the time the sale could be completed.
The Bill was approved as an amendment to the Omnibus Drug Initiative Act by the House Judiciary Committee on a voice vote in June of the following year. However, on September 15, 1988, the Brady Bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 228-182.
In March 1991, the Bill was introduced again into the House of Representatives by Representative
Chuck Schumer
Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, an ...
, but was never brought to a vote.
On February 22, 1993, the bill was reintroduced for the final time by Rep. Schumer leading to the final version being passed in the 103rd Congress on November 11, 1993. It was signed into law by President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
on November 30, 1993, and the law went into effect on February 28, 1994.
Provisions
The Brady Bill requires that background checks be conducted on individuals before a firearm may be purchased from a federally licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer—unless an exception applies. If there are no additional state restrictions, a firearm may be transferred to an individual upon approval by the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a background check system in the United States created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Law) of 1993 to prevent firearm sales to people prohibited under the Act. ...
(NICS) maintained by the FBI. In some states, proof of a previous background check can be used to bypass the NICS check. For example, a state-issued
concealed carry
Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pr ...
permit usually includes a background check equivalent to the one required by the Act. Other alternatives to the NICS check include state-issued handgun purchase permits or mandatory state or local background checks.
In Section 922(g) of title 18, United States Code the Brady Bill prohibits certain persons from shipping or transporting any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, or receiving any firearm which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, or possessing any firearm in or affecting commerce. These prohibitions apply to any person who:
# Has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year;
# Is a fugitive from justice;
# Is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance;
# Has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution;
# Is an alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States;
# Has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions;
# Having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced U.S. citizenship;
# Is subject to a court order that restrains the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner;
# Has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, or;
# Is under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
Section 922(n) of title 18, United States Code makes it unlawful for any person who is under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year to ship or transport any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, or receive any firearm which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.
After a prospective buyer completes the appropriate form, the holder of a Federal Firearms License (FFL) initiates the background check by phone or computer. Most checks are determined within minutes. If a determination is not obtained within three business days then the transfer may legally be completed.
Firearm transfers by unlicensed private sellers that are "not engaged in the business" of dealing firearms are not subject to the Brady Act, but may be covered under other federal, state, and local restrictions. The Brady Act has since been amended that private transfers of firearms must be conducted through a Federal Firearms Licensee, who, at their discretion may charge a fee for processing the transaction through the NICS system.
The Brady Bill also does not apply to licensed Curios & Relics (C&R) collectors, but only in respect to C&R firearms. The FFL Category 03 Curio & Relic license costs $30 and is valid for three years. Licensed C&R collectors may also purchase C&R firearms from private individuals or from federal firearms dealers, whether in their home state or in another state, and ship C&R firearms in interstate commerce by common carrier. Curios or relics are defined in as "Firearms which are of special interest to collectors by reason of some quality other than is associated with firearms intended for sporting use or as offensive or defensive weapons." The regulation further states:
James and Sarah Brady
James Brady was press secretary to President Ronald Reagan when both he and the president, along with Secret Service agent
Tim McCarthy
Timothy J. McCarthy (born June 20, 1949) is an American former policeman and special agent in the United States Secret Service. McCarthy is best known for defending President Ronald Reagan during the assassination attempt on Reagan's life on M ...
and District of Columbia police officer
Thomas Delehanty, were shot on March 30, 1981, during an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr., Brady was shot in the head and suffered a serious wound that left him partially paralyzed for life.
John Hinckley Jr. bought the .22 caliber
Röhm RG-14
The Röhm RG-14 is a double action, six shot revolver chambered in .22 LR
The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the Un ...
revolver used in the shooting at a Dallas, Texas, pawn shop on October 13, 1980. In a purchase application that he filled out before taking possession of the revolver, he provided a false home address on the form and showed an old Texas driver's license as "proof" that he lived there. This constituted a felony offense. Additionally, Hinckley had been arrested four days earlier at the Metropolitan Airport in Nashville, Tennessee, when he attempted to board an American Airlines flight for New York with three handguns and some loose ammunition in his carry-on bag. That same day, President Jimmy Carter was in Nashville and scheduled to travel to New York. Finally, Hinckley had been under psychiatric care prior to his gun purchase.
According to Sarah Brady, had a background check been conducted on Hinckley, it could have detected some, or all, of this important criminal and mental health history.
Sarah Brady, James's wife, became active in the gun control movement a few years after the shooting. She joined the Board of
Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) in 1985 and became its chair in 1989. Two years later, she became Chair of the center to Prevent Handgun Violence, HCI's 501(c)(3) sister organization. In 2001, the organizations were renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in honor of James and Sarah.
On February 4, 1987, the Brady Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress for the first time. Sarah Brady and HCI made the passage of the Brady bill, as it was commonly called, their top legislative priority. In a March 1991 editorial, President Reagan opined that the Brady Act would provide a crucial "enforcement mechanism" to end the "honor system" of the
1968 Gun Control Act
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA or GCA68) is a U.S. federal law that regulates the firearms industry and firearms ownership. Due to constitutional limitations, the Act is primarily based on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generall ...
and "can't help but stop thousands of illegal handgun purchases."
James and Sarah Brady were guests of honor when President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Act into law on November 30, 1993. President Clinton has stated, "If it hadn't been for them, we would not have passed the Brady Law." In December 2000, the Boards of Trustees for HCI and the center to Prevent Handgun Violence voted to honor James and Sarah Brady's hard work and commitment to gun control by renaming the two organizations the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
In 2000, controversy arose when Sarah Brady purchased a
.30-06 Springfield
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...
rifle in Delaware for her son. Gun rights groups claimed that this action was a
straw purchase, intended to avoid the NICS, and may have also violated Delaware firearms purchase laws. No charges were ever filed against Sarah Brady, however. A firearm purchased as a gift is not considered a straw purchase under U.S. federal law if the recipient may legally possess it. Critics pointed out, however, that private firearm transfers like the one made by Sarah Brady are a common concern of gun control advocates (although exemptions for family members have been allowed in past legislation to regulate such sales).
Dissenting views and opposition from the National Rifle Association
Though dissenting opinions assert that legislation to limit the prevalence of gun violence is needed,
opponents of the Act argue it will have limited impact on the nation's issue with violent crime because its provisions do little to stop guns from being obtained illegally, and only deal with firearm sales from registered dealers.
National Rifle Association
After the Brady Act was originally proposed in 1987, the
National Rifle Association (NRA) mobilized to defeat the legislation, spending millions of dollars in the process. While the bill eventually did pass in both chambers of the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
, the NRA was able to win an important concession: the final version of the legislation provided that, in 1998, the five-day waiting period for handgun sales would be replaced by an instant computerized background check that involved no waiting periods.
The NRA then funded lawsuits in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming that sought to strike down the Brady Act as unconstitutional. These cases wound their way through the courts, eventually leading the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Brady Act in the case of ''
Printz v. United States''.
In ''Printz'', the NRA argued that the Brady Act was unconstitutional because its provisions requiring local law enforcement officers to conduct background checks was a violation of the
10th Amendment to the Constitution (Brief
Amicus Curiae of the National Rifle Association of America in Support of Petitioners, ''Printz v. United States'', 521 U.S. 898, 1997). Based on these grounds, the NRA told the Court "the whole Statute must be voided."
In its 1997 decision in the case, the Supreme Court ruled that the provision of the Brady Act that compelled state and local law enforcement officials to perform the background checks was
unconstitutional
Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
on
10th amendment grounds. The Court determined that this provision violated both the concept of federalism and that of the unitary executive. However, the overall Brady statute was upheld and state and local law enforcement officials remained free to conduct background checks if they so chose. The vast majority continued to do so. In 1998, background checks for firearm purchases became mostly a federally run activity when
NICS came online, although many states continue to mandate state run background checks before a gun dealer may transfer a firearm to a buyer.
Background checks for firearms purchases operate in only one direction because of the
Firearm Owners Protection Act. That is, although a firearms dealer may obtain electronic information that an individual is excluded from firearms purchases, the FBI and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) do not receive electronic information in return to indicate what firearms are being purchased.
Since 1998
From the inception of the NICS system in 1998 through 2014, more than 202 million Brady background checks have been conducted. During this period approximately 1.2 million attempted firearm purchases were blocked by the Brady background check system, or about 0.6 percent.
[NICS denials](_blank)
The most common reason for denials are previous felony convictions.
Prosecution and conviction of violators of the Brady Act, however, is extremely rare. During the first 17 months of the Act, only seven individuals were convicted. In the first year of the Act, 250 cases were referred for prosecution and 217 of them were rejected.
A 2000 study in the ''
Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') found that the implementation of the Brady Act was associated with "reductions in the firearm suicide rate for persons aged 55 years or older."
While the same study was unable to conclusively demonstrate the Brady Act had an effect on other gun-related deaths, later studies found waiting periods for handguns significantly reduce overall gun deaths. Georgetown University professor Jens Ludwig and Duke University professor Philip J. Cook, who conducted the ''JAMA'' study, praised the law. However, they also pointed out that it did not regulate a "secondary market" which involved acquiring guns from non-dealers, stating that "Our own view is that the Brady Act was a useful—but modest—first step, reducing the availability of guns to high-risk groups such as teens and convicted felons. The Brady Act's apparent effect in reducing gun suicides is encouraging, and implies that lives were probably saved as a result of the waiting period that was required during the first four years of the legislation. But effective action to reduce gun crime may require extending the regulatory umbrella to include the secondary market." Despite allegations that firearm-related homicides did not greatly decrease by 2000, nationwide data collected by the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
showed otherwise, with firearm related homicides dropping from 17,527 in 1994 to 10,801 in 2000.
However, other factors played a role as well, as non-gun-related violence declined throughout the period. Researchers continue to debate how much of the decline in violent crime can be attributed to the Brady Act or other gun control legislation.
See also
*
Federal Assault Weapons Ban
*
Gun law in the United States
In the United States, access to guns is controlled by law under a number of federal statutes. These laws regulate the manufacture, trade, possession, transfer, record keeping, transport, and destruction of firearms, ammunition, and firearms acc ...
*
Gun politics in the United States
References
External links
{{wikisource
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention ActPDFdetails
as amended in the GPO GPO may refer to:
Government and politics
* General Post Office, Dublin
* General Post Office, in Britain
* Social Security Government Pension Offset, a provision reducing benefits
* Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a Thai state enterpris ...
br>Statute Compilations collection
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
as enacted in the US Statutes at Large
The text of the Brady Bill
as reported in the House from the U.S. Government Printing Office
The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
The Brady Campaign website
from Legal Information Institute
Roll call vote
from the U.S. Senate
Roll call vote
from the U.S. House of Representatives
1993 in American law
103rd United States Congress
Acts of the 103rd United States Congress
Gun politics in the United States
United States federal criminal legislation
United States federal firearms legislation