Virginia Senator to Bring Back Expanded Background Check Bill

“It’s coming back,” said Virginia Senator Joe Manchin Tuesday about his bipartisan bill to expand background checks on gun sales, a bill which failed to pass on its first run through the Senate last month. [more]

HOUSTON - Members of the National Rifle Association were assured that they would never have to surrender their firearms. Along with this statement they were told that the fight against government gun control is far [more]

Senate Rejects Expanded Gun Background Checks

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats scuttled the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades Wednesday, rejecting tighter background checks for buyers and a ban on assault weapons [more]

Day of Reckoning for Expanded Background Checks

D-Day: Today, consideration of the Manchin-Toomey background check proposal and a myriad other gun amendments, including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips, will be the main event on Capitol Hill. The outcome of [more]

Deal Reached on Gun Background Check Bill

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. announced that they have reached a compromise bill on Wednesday that expands background checks on gun purchases, and possibly paving the way for votes [more]

Both Gun Control Parties Make Public Appeal

WASHINGTON — Two of the loudest voices in the gun debate say it’s up to voters now to make their position known to Congress. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and National Rifle Associate Executive Vice President [more]

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Flaws in FBI Background Check System Fail to Flag Purchases

FBI Prohibited Buyers List

Like many states, Maine depends on the FBI to conduct background checks of people who want to acquire firearms from the state’s federally licensed gun dealers.

And like many states, Maine is a slacker in supplying the records that the FBI depends on to run those checks.

That’s how Raymond Geisel got his guns, including a Glock Model 17 pistol and a semi-automatic version of the AK-47 assault rifle. Geisel had previously been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Bangor, which made him ineligible under federal law to buy or possess a gun. But because state officials had not supplied records of his commitment to the FBI, Geisel passed background checks without being flagged.

Eventually, the law caught up with Geisel. He was arrested in Miami in August 2008 for making threats against Barack Obama, who was campaigning in south Florida around the same time. Another gun that Geisel had acquired in Maine was subsequently recovered by federal agents in his hotel room, along with a combat-style hatchet, armor-piercing ammo and canisters of tear gas.

The data gap that Geisel exploited should have been closed by now. Four years ago, after the massacre at Virginia Tech exposed gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Congress and the Bush administration took decisive action to shore up the joint state-federal operation, which is supposed to keep guns away from the deranged and the dangerous.