Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Pub.L. 103–159, 107 Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993), often referred to as the Brady Act, the Brady Bill, or the Brady Handgun Bill is an Act of the United States Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States. It also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was implemented in 1998. Introduced by U.S. representative Chuck Schumer of New York, the Brady Act was a landmark legislative enactment during the Clinton administration. The act was appended to the end of Section 922 of title 18, United States Code. The intention of the act was to prevent persons with previous serious convictions from purchasing firearms.
Long title
An Act to provide for a waiting period before the purchase of a handgun, and for the establishment of a national instant criminal background check system to be contacted by firearms dealers before the transfer of any firearm.
February 28, 1994
107 Stat. 1536
18
921–922
Legislative History[edit]
Various iterations of the Brady Bill were discussed and rejected by Congress between 1987 and 1993, when it finally became law.[1]
On February 4, 1987, two Ohio Democrats, Representative Edward F. Feighan and Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum, introduced the Brady Bill for the first time in the 100th Congress.[1] In its original form, the Bill mandated a seven-day waiting period between the time a person applied for a handgun and the time the sale could be completed.[1] The Bill was approved as an amendment to the Omnibus Drug Initiative Act by the House Judiciary Committee on a voice vote in June of the following year. However, on September 15, 1988, the Brady Bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 228-182.[1]
In March 1991, the Bill was introduced again into the House of Representatives by Representative Chuck Schumer, but was never brought to a vote.
On February 22, 1993, the bill was reintroduced for the final time by Rep. Schumer leading to the final version being passed in the 103rd Congress on November 11, 1993. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993, and the law went into effect on February 28, 1994.
Since 1998[edit]
From the inception of the NICS system in 1998 through 2014, more than 202 million Brady background checks have been conducted.[20] During this period approximately 1.2 million attempted firearm purchases were blocked by the Brady background check system, or about 0.6 percent.[21] The most common reason for denials are previous felony convictions.[21]
Prosecution and conviction of violators of the Brady Act, however, is extremely rare. During the first 17 months of the Act, only seven individuals were convicted. In the first year of the Act, 250 cases were referred for prosecution and 217 of them were rejected.[22]
A 2000 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the implementation of the Brady Act was associated with "reductions in the firearm suicide rate for persons aged 55 years or older."[23] While the same study was unable to conclusively demonstrate the Brady Act had an effect on other gun-related deaths, later studies found waiting periods for handguns significantly reduce overall gun deaths.[24] Georgetown University professor Jens Ludwig and Duke University professor Philip J. Cook, who conducted the JAMA study, praised the law. However, they also pointed out that it did not regulate a "secondary market" which involved acquiring guns from non-dealers, stating that "Our own view is that the Brady Act was a useful—but modest—first step, reducing the availability of guns to high-risk groups such as teens and convicted felons. The Brady Act's apparent effect in reducing gun suicides is encouraging, and implies that lives were probably saved as a result of the waiting period that was required during the first four years of the legislation. But effective action to reduce gun crime may require extending the regulatory umbrella to include the secondary market."[25] Despite allegations that firearm-related homicides did not greatly decrease by 2000, nationwide data collected by the U.S. Department of Justice showed otherwise, with firearm related homicides dropping from 17,527 in 1994 to 10,801 in 2000.[26][27] However, other factors played a role as well, as non-gun-related violence declined throughout the period. Researchers continue to debate how much of the decline in violent crime can be attributed to the Brady Act or other gun control legislation.