New Leahy Bill Would Reimburse Vermont For Gun Sale Background Checks

June 22, 2000

Sen. Patrick Leahy introduced legislation today in the Senate Judiciary Committee that would reimburse Vermont and other states that perform background checks on gun buyers, as they are required to do under federal law. Leahy introduced the bill with strong bipartisan support.

The National Instant Criminal Check System (NICS), established under the 1994 Brady handgun bill, requires gun dealers to conduct criminal background checks on all gun buyers. The NICS has been highly successful in keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and ensuring the timely transfer of firearms to law-abiding citizens, but Leahy believes that the NICS system can be improved.

While the instant check is mandated under federal law, many states are picking up the tab for conducting these background checks. Because more comprehensive criminal history records are available at the state level, about half of the states (including Vermont), in the interest of public safety, have decided to conduct their own Brady background checks rather than relying on the federal government. In Vermont, the criminal records of about 28 percent of those individuals who were denied sale of a gun would not have been available to the FBI, because they were state charges.

Leahy's National Instant Criminal Background Check Partnership Act, cosponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), would authorize the Department of Justice to reimburse these states for performing the background checks.

"While some states relied on the FBI to conduct the Brady background checks and paid nothing, the states that elected to conduct more effective background checks paid the full cost of them," said Leahy. "That is unfair to states like Vermont that are doing the right thing."

Leahy, the Ranking Member of the committee, invited Max Schlueter, Director of the Vermont Crime Information Center, to testify at a judiciary committee hearing on the instant check system. Schleuter told the panel about the importance of the NICS checks to Vermont and the need for federal support to continue this important program at the state level.