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Policy Brief on Key Solutions to Gun Violence in America

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Policy Brief on Key Solutions to Gun Violence in America Policy Brief on Key Solutions to Gun Violence in America by Mayors Against Illegal Guns JANUARY 2013 Table of Contents The Demand a Plan Campaign and About Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a document describing the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition and the recent campaign to Demand a Plan from elected leaders to reduce gun violence .................................................................................................3 Mayors Against Illegal Guns – Who We Are and What We Stand For, a document describing the coalition’s gun violence prevention advocacy ................................................................................4 “Fixing the Broken Background Check system,” outlining the problems with our broken background check system for gun sales and our proposed solution to fix it ........................................5 “Gun Sales with No Background Check, No Paperwork, No Questions Asked: The Private Sale Loophole at Gun Shows,” illustrating how the distinction between licensed dealers and private sellers is, in many ways, a fiction ...........................................................................................10 “Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines,” outlining the need to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines ...................................................................................13 “The Need for a Federal Gun Trafficking Crime,” outlining the need to make gun trafficking a federal crime ....................................................................................................................................17 “Preventing Gun Violence by Enforcing Existing Laws,” recommending steps that the Administration can take to more aggressively enforce existing laws .................................................20 “The Economic Benefits of Reducing Violent Crime,” a summary of a report by economists Rob Shapiro and Kevin Hassett, released by the Center for American Progress, assessing the economic costs of gun violence ..........................................................................................................23 Gun Violence Prevention Polling, summarizing the results of several polls showing that gun owners, NRA members, and voters in swing states overwhelmingly support common sense gun policies ...............................................................................................................................24 Letter to President Obama from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, dated December 19, 2012, a letter which Mayors Against Illegal Guns sent to President Obama following the Newtown shooting outlining the coalition’s gun violence prevention agenda ...................................................33 Appendix: Bill Analysis “Summary of the Fix Gun Checks Act,” describing pending legislation, endorsed by the coalition, to fix the broken background check system .......................................................................44 Mayors Against Illegal Guns 2 About Mayors Against Illegal Guns Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a national, bipartisan coalition of mayors working to make America’s communities safer by cracking down on illegal guns. Co-founded in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the coalition has grown from an initial group of 15 mayors to more than 800 Republicans, Democrats, and Independents from major cities and small towns. We have more than 900,000 grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country. Every day, 33 Americans are murdered with guns – that’s 12,000 people killed with guns every year. Mayors Against Illegal Guns advocates for common-sense measures that will keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people while respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The coalition is committed to closing the deadly gaps in the national gun background check system that give criminals, terrorists, domestic violence offenders, the seriously mentally ill and other dangerous people easy access to firearms. We also work to make sure law enforcement agencies have the tools and resources they need to effectively crack down on illegal gun trafficking in our communities and along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last summer, after the shooting tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, and Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a group of survivors and family members of victims of the January 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns to launch a national campaign to Demand a Plan, urging our elected leaders to present their plans to end the gun violence that murders 33 people every day in the U.S. This campaign is all the more urgent following the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Learn more at www.DemandAPlan.org. Mayors Against Illegal Guns 3 Mayors Against Illegal Guns – Who We Are and What We Stand For Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a bipartisan coalition of more than 800 mayors from big cities and small towns across the nation, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, dedicated to making America’s communities safer by cracking down on illegal guns. We have more than 900,000 grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country. We believe that support for the Second Amendment goes hand in hand with keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous people. Every day, 33 Americans are killed with guns. As one of the first people to get the call when a police officer or a child has been shot in their community, mayors know all too well the terrible toll of this gun violence and the importance of protecting their communities from illegal guns. In April 2006, a group of 15 mayors, hosted by Mayor Menino and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, held a summit in New York City to discuss strategies for stopping the flow of illegal guns into America’s cities. The mayors decided to form a coalition to advocate for common sense gun laws and share best practices for combating illegal guns. Since then, the coalition has grown to more than 800 mayors from around the country, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, committed to fighting gun crime and to giving law enforcement agencies the tools they need to keep guns out of criminal hands. Our top legislative priorities are: (1) fixing the broken background check system and requiring a criminal background check for every gun sale; (2) banning military-style weapons and high- capacity magazines; and (3) creating a federal gun trafficking statute with real penalties for those who traffic illegal guns into our cities and across the border to Mexico. Our common sense proposals for reducing gun crime are supported by a wide range of Americans, including a majority of gun owners. We partner with a wide range of organizations around the country and across the political spectrum, including law enforcement, domestic violent prevention advocates, and faith leaders. Learn more about the coalition at www.demandaplan.organd www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org. Follow us on Twitter at @maigcoalition and #DemandAPlan Mayors Against Illegal Guns 4 FIXING THE BROKEN BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM Bottom Line: Background checks are the only systematic way to stop felons, domestic abusers, the seriously mentally ill, and other dangerous people from buying firearms. But the background check system is broken, creating easy ways for dangerous people to purchase firearms. Criminals and other prohibited purchasers can avoid background checks by buying firearms from unlicensed “private sellers”—often at gun shows or through anonymous online transactions—who are not required by federal law to conduct them. An estimated 6.6 million guns are sold each year without a federal background check. Even when background checks are performed, prohibited purchasers are not always denied because the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is missing millions of relevant records. Congress should require a criminal background check for every gun sale and take steps to get all of the names of felons, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill into NICS. When it works properly, NICS can effectively stop dangerous people from buying guns. Federal law currently requires federally licensed gun dealers to run NICS checks on prospective gun purchasers before selling them guns. Completing the necessary paperwork for a background check takes mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these electronic checks are completed instantaneously.1 In 2009 alone, the system identified and denied 150,013 prohibited purchasers, or 1.07 percent of all background checks that year. 2 Since 1999, the federal background check system has blocked over 1.7 million prohibited purchasers from buying firearms at federally licensed dealers. The “private sale loophole” undermines the background check system by allowing millions of buyers to avoid background checks simply by going to private sellers. Federal law recognizes two types of gun sellers: federally licensed gun dealers and private, occasional sellers. It is a federal felony to “engage in the business” of selling guns without a federal firearms license, but the law carves out a broad exception for private gun sellers who make only “occasional sales” or who sell from a “personal collection.”3 And while licensed dealers are required to conduct criminal background checks and keep paperwork on gun buyers, private sellers are exempt from these
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