Brady Act Research Paper

Words: 1352
Pages: 6

On March 30th, 1981 a man named John W. Hinckley Jr. shot both President Ronald Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady. It was this event that gave birth to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. The Brady Act created a national background check and, “requires federally-licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) to conduct background checks before a selling gun, if the purchaser is a prohibited purchaser (e.g., a felon) the Brady Law requires that the FFL refuse the sale” (Timeline of the Brady Bill’s Passage). The Brady Act is one of many laws created to regulate the sell and use of guns, in hopes to protect Americans from gun violence. While the general public tends to see the creation of laws in terms of public demand and government …show more content…
Gun control has been in the front lines for years when it comes to the United States and its controversial political topics. This debate began with, “years of growth in gun violence that began in the 1960s. The U.S. gun crime rate peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” around the time that the Brady Act was created (Chappell). From the late seventies into the eighties, Americans were bombarded by media coverage and real life experience with gun violence. The 1981 assassination attempt served as a focusing event for the American public. Suddenly, gun violence was America’s number one problem. This sudden rush of support for gun control put a need for some type of gun control policy on the governmental agenda. Throughout the …show more content…
The implementation of the Brady Act was broken down into two phases. The first phase created, “ a waiting period of 5 business days to allow state or local law enforcement officers time to conduct presale background checks on purchasers of handguns” (Report). This phase was to continue until a national background check system was created. The second phase required that federally licensed firearms dealers use the national background check system to confirm that the customer was legally allowed to purchase a firearm before selling a firearm to an individual. After breaking down the phases of implementation, the ATF added other regulations, with, “most important of these regulations requiring FFLs to contact NICS prior to transferring any firearm to an