“Papers, please”? A few words on state gun background check laws

Last updated on: January 23, 2016 at 4:27 pm by Jane the Actuary

“Papers, please”? A few words on state gun background check laws 2016-01-23T16:27:36-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Earlier this month, President Obama announced executive actions on guns, and conservatives both decried his actions as unconstitutional, or at least an abuse of executive power, and at the same time unlikely to be effective in their goals. “Enforce the laws already on the books!” critics cried, and, indeed, very few of the crimes committed under existing law are prosecuted, blamed on lack of resources and the difficulty of proving the crimes — though the NRA and other opponents of new gun legislation point to a statistic that prosecution has declined 40% under President Obama as evidence of his unwillingness to prosecute, and it seems to me that I’ve read in the past a further rationalization that aggressive prosecution of gun-related crimes (e.g., possession by someone not legally permitted, attempts to buy, etc.) would only increase the number of young black men in jail.

But here’s what’s missing from this discussion: crime, in general, is a state matter. And gun legislation is, likewise, in general, a state matter. According to The Guardian, “Eighteen states . . . have enacted varying levels of mandatory background checks.” And here are the rules in Illinois:

In order to acquire a firearm, one must first apply for and receive a Firearm Owner’s Identification (F.O.I.D. or “foid”) card, which requires a driver’s license or state ID, a photograph, and a $10 fee. This card is supposed to be issued within 30 days, though, according to Wikipedia, processing times have recently been as long as 60 days. A background check, of the sort otherwise done through the National Instance Background Check System, is performed on all applicants.

Then, according to the Illinois State Police website,

Any person who is not a federally licensed firearm dealer and who desires to transfer or sell a firearm or firearms to any person who is not a federally licensed firearm dealer shall, before selling or transferring the firearms, contact the Department of State Police with the transferee’s or purchaser’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card number to determine the validity of the transferee’s or purchaser’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card. This subsection shall not be effective until January 1, 2014. The Department of State Police may adopt rules concerning the implementation of this subsection. The Department of State Police shall provide the seller or transferor an approval number if the purchaser’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card is valid. Approvals issued by the Department for the purchase of a firearm pursuant to this subsection are valid for 30 days from the date of issue.

In other words, in Illinois, there is no debate about whether individuals may legally buy and sell guns at gun shows, or at armslist.com, or from your neighbor, without background checks. And the system isn’t costly (to the end user), or intrusive — FOID card validity can be checked online.

Is the system effective in keeping guns off the streets? Clearly, there are plenty of gangbangers with guns who seem to have had little difficultly finding them. But we don’t know — and can’t really determine without some modeling that is unlikely to be credible — if, absent the FOID card regulations, shootings would be even higher than they are now.

Does your state have a similar regulation? And, if not, should it?

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