Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was intended to prevent the purchasing of firearms to convicted felons, but failed to recognize other avenues, and failed to establish an accurate background system. The Brady act was created as an Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968. It instituted a five day waiting period and required that every business in each state, which has a license to sale firearms, to conduct a background check on each individual prior to a sale. It also established the creation of a national instant criminal background check system. This act came into legislation after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and due to the injuries obtained by press secretary James Brady. The Brady act wasn’t passed
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The background checks required by the Brady act were not as accurate as many had expected. The background checks at first were conducted by the local chiefs of law enforcement until it was deemed unconstitutional in the Supreme Court case Printz v. United States. In this case the Supreme Court confirmed that requiring the chiefs of law enforcement to conduct background checks was unconstitutional under the tenth amendment. The tenth amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (Constitution). This means the federal government can’t force states to enforce federal law. It made it where the background checks were voluntary for each department and sending records for the permanent background check system was also on a voluntary basis. After the court decision, the Brady act required a cooperation between the state and federal governments. The information obtained for the background check system was inaccurate due to many issues with the states not wanting to report medical records. This has led to a lot of controversy and has allowed many mentally disturbed personnel access to firearms. A good example was the Virginia Tech shooting, where Seung-Hui Cho was diagnosed with a mental illness, but was still able to purchase firearms, which he later used to kill thirty-two people. The Brady act focused more on felons being denied then on the mentally ill because a lot of the records weren’t available when it comes to mental health. One way the federal government has tried to fix the issue of receiving proper records is by implementing the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. The act provides “financial incentives for states to provide to NICS information relevant to whether a person is prohibited from possessing firearms,
The background checks required by the Brady act were not as accurate as many had expected. The background checks at first were conducted by the local chiefs of law enforcement until it was deemed unconstitutional in the Supreme Court case Printz v. United States. In this case the Supreme Court confirmed that requiring the chiefs of law enforcement to conduct background checks was unconstitutional under the tenth amendment. The tenth amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (Constitution). This means the federal government can’t force states to enforce federal law. It made it where the background checks were voluntary for each department and sending records for the permanent background check system was also on a voluntary basis. After the court decision, the Brady act required a cooperation between the state and federal governments. The information obtained for the background check system was inaccurate due to many issues with the states not wanting to report medical records. This has led to a lot of controversy and has allowed many mentally disturbed personnel access to firearms. A good example was the Virginia Tech shooting, where Seung-Hui Cho was diagnosed with a mental illness, but was still able to purchase firearms, which he later used to kill thirty-two people. The Brady act focused more on felons being denied then on the mentally ill because a lot of the records weren’t available when it comes to mental health. One way the federal government has tried to fix the issue of receiving proper records is by implementing the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. The act provides “financial incentives for states to provide to NICS information relevant to whether a person is prohibited from possessing firearms,