The Justice Department will ask its U.S. Attorneys to prioritize the prosecutions of prospective gun buyers who lie on federal background check forms, the New York Times reports. The request, part of a set of recommendations expected to be announced in the coming days, would essentially enforce existing laws that govern gun purchases. It allows the Trump administration to take action on gun-related violence without riling opponents of more restrictive gun policies. The renewed emphasis on background checks would not have stopped Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, who legally purchased several firearms, including an AK-47, within the past month.
Thousands of prospective gun buyers are denied firearm purchases every year through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Prospective buyers must fill out a six-page application, including whether they have ever been convicted of or indicted in a crime, which would disqualify them from purchasing a firearm. The buyer can be approved, denied or issued a delay for the purchase. Under the third option, the firearms dealer must wait three days while the FBI determines whether the buyer’s application is truthful and whether that person is eligible to buy a gun. While lying on the background forms is a felony, it is a crime that has rarely, if ever, been prosecuted. Thousands of prospective gun buyers are denied firearms purchases annually, but between 2008 and 2015, fewer than 32 cases a year were even considered for prosecution, according to the DOJ inspector general. Gaps in the system have prompted scrutiny in an array of high-profile failures. Its three-day waiting period loophole allowed Dylann Roof, who in 2015 murdered nine people in a Charleston, S.C., church, to buy the gun used in the shooting, despite a drug charge that same year.