The House passed (219-210) H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021. This bill increases the amount of time federal examiners will have to ascertain whether a person is prohibited from completing a firearm sale and expands the group of individuals who are prohibited from obtaining a firearm.

Under the measure, the initial three-day period for the FBI to complete a more thorough background check when the system does not provide an instant result would be increased by seven business days — to ten business days.

If a decision is not produced in that time, the transferee may submit a petition electronically or by first-class mail challenging his or her failure to be approved. If a further ten business days (20 business days from the initial transfer request) passes without a decision from federal authorities, the firearm sale will be allowed to proceed.

Under the bill, the Justice Department is required to issue a response to the petitioner upon receipt of his or her request.

The measure also expands the group of individuals who are prohibited from obtaining a firearm to include individuals "with mental illness, severe developmental disability, or severe emotional instability," instead of those "adjudicated as a mental defective," as is the case under current law.

In Favor

Supporters, including most Democrats and gun control advocates, say more time is needed for the sometimes complicated task of compiling and searching criminal records from local, state and federal agencies to ensure that a prohibited individual isn't able to purchase a firearm.

Against

Opponents, including most Republicans and gun rights supporters, say the current three-day period provides sufficient time to ensure that Americans' rights to acquire firearms are not arbitrarily denied because of bureaucratic delays, inefficiencies or mistakes in identity.

Should Congress pass H.R.1446, that increases from three days to 10 days the amount of time the FBI would have to complete a background check of an individual seeking to purchase a firearm if the instant check doesn't provide a result, and it expands the categories of individuals who are prohibited from purchasing a firearm?

Additional Views:

Supporters of the two bills (H.R.8 & H.R.1446), primarily Democrats, say the large increase in gun violence over the past decade warrants federal action to help prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands. Even most gun owners support the nation's background check requirement, they say, yet the background check system is too easily skirted; there is no reason individuals who are barred from buying a firearm at a gun store should be able to turn around and purchase the same weapon over the internet or at a gun show. They say the federal background check system is fast and accurate and is not onerous on gun purchasers, and would be effective at stopping those who are legally barred from owning a weapon while still protecting Americans' Second Amendment rights. And in the small number of cases in which FBI examiners need additional time to complete a background check, they say providing that additional time can help ensure felons and others who shouldn't own guns don't fall through the cracks, which will simply save lives. They say that bottom line, the bills represent common sense ways to help reduce the gun-related carnage that afflicts too many Americans.

 Opponents of the two bills (H.R.8 & H.R.1446), primarily Republicans, say Democrats are once again trying to exploit gun tragedies for political purposes in the rush to show they are "doing something." They say most criminals obtain weapons through theft and straw purchases, which are already illegal, and not from gun shows, and argue there is little to no connection between mass shootings and the legislative fixes being proposed. The bills will only act to infringe on the rights of law-abiding Americans who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights, they say, placing an undue burden on private buyers and sellers by forcing them to find a licensed gun dealer willing to process the sale and conduct the background check through the federal system, which will also increase the cost of gun ownership. And the current 3-day limit on the time the FBI has to complete a background check is more than sufficient, they say, noting that in the case of Dylann Roof the FBI simply failed to continue its background investigation which would have revealed he was prohibited from buying the gun. As with many shooting tragedies, it was simply a matter of the authorities failing to enforce existing laws.