Some progress has been made on those instructions with regards to our background check system.
The agency performed more than 2.3 million checks in February using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
But information in the national background check system is incomplete, particularly involving mental health records, investigations have found.
In addition, he said, the background-check system tends to break down on weekends, when gun shows often swell traffic.
WSJ: Systemic Gaps Hinder Background Checks for Gun Purchases
We will make it easier to keep guns out of the hands of criminals by strengthening the background check system.
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Federal data on gun purchases is gathered by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is run by the FBI.
But only federally licensed dealers are required to use the background-check system.
These are the so-called loopholes in the current federal background check system.
Froman talked about how the current background check system was broken, noting that an "instant check" in Colorado can actually take about 10 days.
New York state took steps Tuesday to bolster its background-check system as part of firearm-restrictions legislation that Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law.
WSJ: Systemic Gaps Hinder Background Checks for Gun Purchases
Jared Loughner was not in the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) that records the names of people of deemed ineligible to purchase a weapon.
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Most federal gun prosecution takes place outside the background check system.
Federally licensed gun shops must use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Private sellers and gun shows have no background check requirement.
Incredibly, last November the Federal Bureau of Investigation says there were about two million background checks called into The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
An Associated Press analysis of new FBI data published early Tuesday shows the National Instant Criminal Background Check system processed more than 2.78 million checks in December.
In the 20 years since it was first established, the national background check system has already kept more than 2 million dangerous people from buying a gun.
Currently access to the FBI's background check system is limited to licensed firearms dealers, who have an incentive not to abuse it lest they lose their license.
Might a rational background check system include maybe being not-so-instant, even if it means that some people might have to wait a few days before purchasing a weapon?
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When someone who falls into a prohibited category for a gun purchase applies to buy a weapon under the background check system, there may be nothing to prosecute.
On another issue, Republicans on the panel have expressed support for expanding the scope of mental health information submitted to the federal background check system used by gun sellers.
And the Department of Health and Human Services said it would write new rules to ensure that federal health-privacy law doesn't prevent states from providing records to the background-check system.
The NRA contends that an expanded background check system would create a paper trail that could eventually be used to build a national gun registry, which they reject as unconstitutional.
Seventeen submitted fewer than 10 records, and four states hadn't reported a single record to the federal background check system, according to the federal investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office.
Many consider the Manchin-Toomey compromise the best hope for winning Senate approval to widen the background check system, designed to screen out the severely mentally ill, criminals and others from getting firearms.
Keene and other opponents worry that an expanded background check system would create a paper trail that could eventually be used to create a national gun registry, which they reject as unconstitutional.
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However, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre told the panel that the current background check system doesn't work, so expanding it would only create an unmanageable government bureaucracy instead of reducing gun crime.
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It would also require increased cooperation by states with the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and would prohibit people deemed by the courts as unfit to own guns from obtaining them.
Mr. Baker said that at Thursday's meeting, he suggested the administration work on ways to push states to submit mental-health records into the background-check system, an emerging area of consensus in response to Newtown.
Gun-control advocates have helped highlight these flaws, but some also worry that focus on the system's holes will be used as an excuse to block legislation requiring universal use of the background check system.
WSJ: Systemic Gaps Hinder Background Checks for Gun Purchases
The fact that we would be voting on -- that the Senate would be voting on a bipartisan, common-sense compromise amendment that would establish an expanded background check system has been known for some time.
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