Study Pushes for Stricter Gun Control Policies

A new study on gun control policies makes the case for requiring background checks in private gun sales to prevent dangerous people frombuyingguns tooeasily.

The study was released just days after eight people were shot, including the gunman, duringa domestic violence dispute in Brookfield.

The study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore Maryland calls for broadening the prohibitions that prevent high risk person from buying guns. Study author Daniel Webster says the Brookfield shooting that left four dead, including the shooter, and four others wounded highlights the biggest loophole in the current gun sales screening laws. Radcliffe Haughton bought the murder weapon from private gun owner just two days after he was placed on a restraining order thatbarred him from owning a gun.

“Private sellers have no obligations to ask any question of a person who wants to purchase firearms from them about whether they have any prohibitions that would prevent them from legally possessing a gun,” he says.

The study found that in the twelve states where private sellers do have to ask buyers to submit to a background checks a significant number of guns have been kept out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Webster likens the private gun sales loophole to allowing people to choose whether or not to pass through the metal detector before getting on a plane.

“We’ve said you can go through the formal protocol and be screened or if you don’t want to then just go buy it at a gun show or some other venue, and we can’t expect much out of our gun laws if we have these gaping loopholes,” he says.

But gun rights advocates have consistently opposed requiring such background checks in gun sales between private individuals.