Research Paper on "Brady Act Policy Evaluation"

Research Paper 4 pages (1153 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

However, as the next section notes, there are some discrepancies in the performance of this policy that must be addressed.

Gaps Between Policy and Reality:

To this end, one of the largest and most problematic gaps between the intention of the Brady policy and the actuality of the policy in execution is that its focus is limited to only federally licensed gun deals. Unfortunately, the firearms business is characterized by a wide range of independent sellers and unmonitored transactions. The result is that the background check program has a decidedly limited reach when it comes to a statistically significant number of gun sales. According to Senator Levin, "the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence [reports that] two out of every five guns acquired in the United States; including guns bought at gun shows, through classified ads, and between individuals; change hands without a background check. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence also estimates that extending criminal background checks to all gun transactions in the United States could prevent nearly 120,000 additional illegal gun sales every year." (Levin, p. 1)

This means that we are only really catching a little more than half of all gun buyers who are likely to be unfit for firearm ownership. Because the Brady Act has been prevented from reaching into such sales contexts as private weapons shows, it is difficult to truly determine its impact. Most particularly, we have know way of knowing what percentage of legally unfit buyers prefer to pursue their acquisition in a context without background checks. However, we may assume that being unfit for purchase from a legal dealer is a strong inventive to purchase a handgun through an alternate channel.

This likelihood may in fact account for the finding reported in the article by Cook. Here, Cook points out that if we choose to measure the Brady Act's effectiveness using an alternate metric, it is appropriate to consider its impact on actual gun violence. Here, Cook points out that the very purpose of the Brady Act was in fact to stem the occurrence of gun violence rather than to simply restrict purchase. According to these terms, the "study did not find significant trend differences between the Brady and non-Brady states in the most reliably measured gun crime - homicide. Thus the direct effect on gun crime that advocates expected from denying disqualified adults in the Brady states does not reveal itself in our data." (Cook, p. 1)

Conclusion:

Scrutinizing this claim a little more closely, we can see that the finding is somewhat disingenuous, primarily because the states which did not adopt the Brady Bill in 1994 already did employ some form of background check-based gun control. A better basis for comparison would be the rate of change in gun violence following policy initiation vs. other crimes. According to Butterfield (2000), "Justice Department figures have shown that crimes committed with handguns fell 52% from 1993 to 1998, which is twice the rate that crimes fell over all." (p. 1)

The distinction in findings demonstrates that this issue remains a politically divisive one. However, we are also inclined to argue that in order for the legislation to truly stem the tide of gun violence, it must reach further with mandatory background checks for all purchases, regardless of setting.

Works Cited:

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). (2013). Data Collection: Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) Program. Bjs.gov.

Butterfield, F. (2000). Study Disputes Success of the… READ MORE

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