FBI Data Show Gun Background Checks Still Undermined

[spin]

3. It would be wise to update the background check system as was supposed to happen ...

because of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. This law was signed by the President on Jan 08, 2008.

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007

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Questions and Answers

What is the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007?

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA), Pub. L. 110-180, was signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008. The NIAA amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 ("the Brady Act&quot (Pub. L. 103-159), under which the Attorney General established the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The Brady Act requires Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to contact the NICS before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person for information on whether the proposed transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under state or federal law. The NIAA was a bipartisan effort to strengthen the NICS by increasing the quantity and quality of relevant records accessible to the system.

Why was the NIAA enacted?

The NIAA was enacted in the wake of the April 2007 shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech. The Virginia Tech shooter was able to purchase firearms from an FFL because information about his prohibiting mental health history was not available to the NICS and the system was therefore unable to deny the transfer of the firearms used in the shootings. The NICS is a critical tool in keeping firearms out of the hands of prohibited persons, but it is only as effective as the information entered into the databases upon which it relies. The NIAA seeks to address the gap in information available to NICS about such prohibiting mental health adjudications and commitments and other prohibiting backgrounds. Filling these information gaps will better enable the system to operate as intended to keep guns out of the hands of persons prohibited by federal or state law from receiving or possessing firearms.emphasis added
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=49#2007

You appear to believe that the solution to the fact that the improvement to the NICS background check hasn't been successfully implemented is simply to "to restrict gun sales." Surely you do not mean that all sales of guns should immediately end?

President Obama mentioned this very problem in an op-ed to the Arizona Post.

First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the filter that's supposed to stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun. Bipartisan legislation four years ago was supposed to strengthen this system, but it hasn't been properly implemented. It relies on data supplied by states - but that data is often incomplete and inadequate. We must do better.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/13/op-ed-president-obama-arizona-daily-star-we-must-seek-agreement-gun-refo

Obama didn't mention suspending gun sales or even imposing further restrictions on them. He was in favor of enforcing existing law and making sure that the states did a better job of living up to their responsibility to better input the data as required by the NICS Improvement Amendments Act.

That sounds entirely reasonable to me.