The NICS Improvement Amendments Act () was passed in 2007 in the wake of the
Virginia Tech shootings
The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an ...
in order to address loopholes in 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. ...
, commonly known as NICS, which enabled
Seung-Hui Cho to buy firearms despite having been ruled a danger to himself by a
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
court.
Under the
Gun Control Act of 1968, it was illegal for Cho to purchase the firearms; however, the Commonwealth of Virginia had not submitted his disqualifying mental health adjudication to NICS, which failed to deny the sale.
2017
In February 2017, the Trump administration signed into law a bill that
rolled back a regulation implemented by the Obama administration, which would have prohibited approximately 75,000 individuals who were receiving Social Security disability and had representative payees, from owning guns. The initial regulation was strongly opposed by the ACLU, the National Association for Mental Health, The American Association of People with Disabilities, and the National Council on Disability, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, as well as other disability rights advocates. The initial regulation was supported by the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence,
Democratic gun control advocates,
and some mental health experts.
See also
*
Gun politics in the United States
*
Gun Control Act of 1968
*
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
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 that mandated federal background checks on ...
of 1993
References
Acts of the 110th United States Congress
United States federal firearms legislation
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