A New Look at Implementation of the Brady Act Term Paper

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Corrections/Police -- Criminal Justice -- The Brady Act

Seven-Stage Checklist for Program/Policy Planning and Analysis

The Seven Stage Checklist for Program/Policy Planning and Analysis was employed to examine The Brady Act. In Stage 1, Analyzing the Problem: the problem was found to be at least four serious gaps in the existing Brady Act. Those gaps include: the lack of required background checks for all gun sales, including private sales at gun shows and online; the lack of strong federal law criminalizing gun trafficking; the ready availability of military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines with more than 10 rounds; and the Tiahrt Order passed by Congress and preventing the public from knowing the identities of gun traffickers and how they operate.

Though the Brady Act suffers from several gaps, the lack of required background checks for all gun sales, including private sales at gun shows and online was addressed. Stage 2: Setting Goals and Objectives: The goals statement is the closure of private-sale loopholes by requiring all gun sales, whether in primary or secondary markets, brick-and-mortar or online, be subject to background checks. The outcome objectives are: the key result of plugging the existing gaps in the Brady Act's background check requirements; the target population is all individuals who would properly be disqualified from gun ownership; time frame for measuring the impact and specific criterion for measuring impact would be a yearly assessment of the number of individuals refused gun sales by background checks in so-called "private" sales that are currently exempt from background checks. Stage 3: Designing the Program or Policy: using both policy and strictly enforced program, the program would meld existing background check procedures with very strictly enforced State of California requirements for comprehensive background checks, funneling of all firearm transactions through Federal Firearms Licensed dealers and requirement that every handgun be registered by its owner, plus law enforcement presence and oversight at gun shows, and sting operations. Stage 4: Action Planning: resources needed would include: additional 4473 forms, training of firearm sellers for background checks, police presence and oversight of firearm sales, "buy and bust" police stings, police seizure of unregistered firearms within the U.S. borders, a web task force and additional FBI agents to review background checks within the 3-day period. Funding will come from FFL fees, background check fees, gun registration fees, and Congressional mandate. Stage 5: Program/Policy Implementation and Monitoring: the intended target population of firearms sellers and buyers would be reached by consistently monitoring police oversight, background check applications/results and online team's location and termination of gun-selling web sites violating uniform background checks. Gaps and conflicts in implementation and adequate staffing would be defined and periodically corrected. Stage 6: Evaluating Outcomes: major stakeholders would want to know both the impact and continuous outcomes. Our objective of requiring background checks for all firearm sales is quite clearly defined and measurable from the beginning. Whether our system is sufficiently well-designed and well-implemented remains to be seen through monitoring, data collection, feedback from staff/stakeholders and review. Stage 7: Review of Program/Policy: Done. The Seven-Stage Checklist for Program/Policy Planning and Analysis reveals that the Brady Act seriously needs a universal, uniform system of background checks for every firearm sale, whether online or offline, whether by professional arms dealers or "private" vendors.

Stage 1: Analyzing the Problem (Welsh & Harris, 2015, p. 217):

1. Describe the Problem

While the Brady Act has made strides in reduction of gun deaths in the United States, there are still serious gaps in the law. Suicides and homicides by firearm are solidly among the top ten causes of injury deaths in the United States. According to the latest published information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 in the United States: suicide by firearm accounted for 21,334 deaths and was the 4th leading cause of injury deaths; and homicide by firearm accounted for 10,945 deaths and was the 6th leading cause of injury deaths (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Homicide/suicide by firearm are nonfactors in the

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d.).

The proliferation of firearms feeds the high rates of suicide/homicide by firearm in the United States. According to multiple studies, unintentional firearm deaths, suicides by firearms and homicides by firearms all occur in far greater frequency as the number of firearms increases (Webster, Vernick, & Bloomberg, 2013, pp. 11-15). Furthermore, the United States holds an unenviable position among developed nations, as "year after year, many more Americans are dying by gunfire than people in any other high-income nation" (Webster, Vernick, & Bloomberg, 2013, p. 15). In view of the high rate of firearms deaths and their intimate relation with the high number of firearms in this country, experts have discerned that the Brady Act is inadequate in several aspects:

a. The lack of required background checks for all gun sales, including private sales at gun shows and online (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2012).

b. The lack of strong federal law criminalizing gun trafficking (Kessler & Trumble, 2013);

c. The ready availability of military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines with more than 10 rounds (Webster, Vernick, & Bloomberg, 2013, p. 148).

d. The Tiahrt order passed by Congress and preventing the public from knowing the identities of gun traffickers and how they operate (Webster, Vernick, & Bloomberg, 2013, p. 137).

For purposes of this planning and analysis only the lack of required background checks for all gun sales, including private sales at gun shows and online will be addressed.

2. Describe the history of the problem:

The lack of background checks for private gun sales has existed since the Brady Act's enactment in 1993 (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2012). The original intent was to allow members of the same family, friends and neighbors to sell firearms to each other without the burden of running background checks. However, gun dealers learned to take advantage of this gap. The problem has only worsened over time. When the Brady Act was enacted, there were merely 130 web sites; as of 2012, there were 634 million web sites (Kessler & Trumble, 2013). Gun control proponents have kept track of this huge loophole and its effects on sales. Analyzing internet sales in 10 states listed on one website in June and July of 2013, researchers found 15,000+ firearms, 1/3 semi-automatic firearms - for "private" sale without background checks at any point in time (Kessler & Trumble, 2013).

3. Examine potential causes of the problem:

The lack of adequate background checks is traceable to at least two causes: the exploitation of a family/friend/neighbor loophole by sellers wishing to defeat the federal background check requirement; the wildly burgeoning internet, including sales of practically innumerable products, including firearms; and the refusal of 10 state senators to close that online loophole for Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, and Tennessee (Kessler & Trumble, 2013);

4. Previous interventions that have tried to change this problem.

There one notable previous federal intervention attempting to address the lack of background checks. In April 2013, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) cosponsored Senate Amendment 715 to Senate bill 649 -- "Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013," a bipartisan bill attempting to close the loophole allowing strangers to sell firearms without background checks, both at brick-and-mortar gun shows and online. This Manchin-Toomey bill needed 60 votes to pass in the Senate but was defeated by a vote of 54-46 (U.S. Library of Congress, 2013). In addition, in answer to Congressional inaction and mass shootings such as those at Sandy Hook Elementary….....

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