As President Barack Obama announces executive orders that will expand the scope of background checks for firearm purchasers, those not in the know may credit him with making an honest effort to “fix” the system. (There’s a reason why the effort to simply “do something,” no matter how useless, is called the “politician’s fallacy.”) But what this nation needs is better background checks, not more of them.
A newly released video on NRA News features NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre explaining why the president’s statements about our current background check system are misleading. There is an obvious solution to improving background checks—but it’s not expanding them.
Here’s what the media won’t tell you. The NRA has fought for 20 years to put the records of those adjudicated mentally incompetent into the National Instant Check System. And until the politicians demand that they are submitted, killers who are legally prohibited from owning firearms will walk into gun stores and pass every background check they take.
LaPierre adds that, “… 38 states submit less than 80 percent of their felony convictions to the system, leaving more than 7 million felony convictions in the dark.”
Truth is, we have the ingredients already in place for an effective background check system that really could help curtail urban crime and mass shootings alike. But the current administration lacks the political will and is pursuing superficial “solutions” instead.“If you cast a net and the fish swim through the holes, you don’t need a bigger net. You need tighter holes.” – Wayne LaPierre
Every time a tragic mass shooting occurs, President Obama and other anti-gun politicians call for expanded background checks—ignoring the plain fact that their proposals would have done nothing to help.
If you cast a net and the fish swim through the holes, you don’t need a bigger net. You need tighter holes. But when it comes to a background check system that’s missing the names of millions of prohibited people … the politicians don’t want to fix it.
Indeed, the NRA was instrumental in implementing instant background checks in the first place, LaPierre explains. All that Bill Clinton had to offer during his presidency was waiting periods. “The best-kept secret is that the National Instant Check System wouldn’t exist at all if it weren’t for the NRA,” LaPierre says.
LaPierre stresses that President Obama’s unwillingness to crack down on the real culprits of violent crime is perpetuating the violence that plagues our nation. “In 2010, roughly 80,000 prohibited people committed a felony by trying to buy a gun. Just 44 were prosecuted for it. Does that sound like a good number to anybody?”
While the president’s supposedly “common-sense” actions on gun control have fooled many Americans, it is crucial that as many people as possible hear what is really wrong with our background check system. Please watch this video and share it; the voting public deserves to know the truth.
“The Truth About Background Checks” is available with transcript on NRA News here.
