Washington – Senior Democrats and the National Rifle Association have agreed on what could be the first federal gun-control bill since 1994, a measure to strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.
Talks began in April, days after a mentally ill gunman killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech University.
The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, had been judicially ordered to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, which should have disqualified him from buying handguns. But the state never forwarded that information to the National Instant Check System, and the massacre exposed a loophole in the 13- year-old background program.
Under the deal, states would be given monetary enticements to keep the federal database up to date, as well as penalties for failing to comply.
To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions.
People with minor infractions in their pasts could petition states to be removed from the database, and about 83,000 military veterans in the system for alleged mental health reasons would have a chance to clean their records.
“The NRA worked diligently with the concerns of gun owners and law enforcement in mind to make a … system that’s better for gun owners and better for law enforcement,” said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a former NRA board member.
