On The Ed Show the other night (MSNBC), there was a story about background checks in Minnesota. Apparently, some Republicans are pushing for the state check to be dropped, arguing that it is redundant: that only the one, federal check is needed.
Ed, and his guest Josh Horowitz (director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence), claimed that the state check is not redundant - that last year, the state check stopped 37 people from buying guns (because of drug use or mental illness) in the city of Bloomington who would not have been picked up by the federal check.
You can find a transcript here: http://www.livedash.com/transcript/the_ed_show/52/MSNBC/Tuesday_February_1_2011/556050/ The discussion starts at 0:55:32.
I want to know if this is true - that these people definitely would not have been identified by the federal system?
Is the state of Minnesota obliged to share its information with the federal system? Do they in fact do so? If they are not obliged to do so, will there be a change so that they are/do? What about the other states?
I would imagine that the best system would be one in which the states do share this information. State checks then really would be redundant, and people could still be identified if they crossed state lines to buy guns. (My understanding of Virginia Tech - correct me if I am wrong - is that Cho was able to buy a gun because Virginia wasn't passing on its information to the federal system.)
I'm horribly ignorant on how all this works, but I'd really like to understand.
Btw - Please refrain from the usual rants about how this is typical of MSNBC, Horowitz, etc. etc. I would just like to talk about what the current situation actually is with checking/reporting by the states, and whether you think the arrangement works.
Ed, and his guest Josh Horowitz (director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence), claimed that the state check is not redundant - that last year, the state check stopped 37 people from buying guns (because of drug use or mental illness) in the city of Bloomington who would not have been picked up by the federal check.
You can find a transcript here: http://www.livedash.com/transcript/the_ed_show/52/MSNBC/Tuesday_February_1_2011/556050/ The discussion starts at 0:55:32.
I want to know if this is true - that these people definitely would not have been identified by the federal system?
Is the state of Minnesota obliged to share its information with the federal system? Do they in fact do so? If they are not obliged to do so, will there be a change so that they are/do? What about the other states?
I would imagine that the best system would be one in which the states do share this information. State checks then really would be redundant, and people could still be identified if they crossed state lines to buy guns. (My understanding of Virginia Tech - correct me if I am wrong - is that Cho was able to buy a gun because Virginia wasn't passing on its information to the federal system.)
I'm horribly ignorant on how all this works, but I'd really like to understand.
Btw - Please refrain from the usual rants about how this is typical of MSNBC, Horowitz, etc. etc. I would just like to talk about what the current situation actually is with checking/reporting by the states, and whether you think the arrangement works.