Roughly 90% of Americans — including a majority of gun owners and Republicans — support universal background checks for firearm purchases. Federal law already requires background checks for sales by licensed dealers, but an estimated 22% of U.S. gun transfers (including sales at gun shows, online, and between private individuals) occur without any check at all.

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act (H.R. 8) would close these loopholes. It passed the House in 2019, re-passed in 2021, and then died.

Mitch McConnell refused to bring it to a vote in the Senate.

How It Harmed Americans:

Every year, tens of thousands of firearms are sold without background checks to people who are legally prohibited from owning them — convicted felons, domestic abusers, and individuals with serious mental illness. Research consistently shows that states with universal background check laws have lower rates of gun deaths, including suicide.

The companion bill, H.R. 1112 (Enhanced Background Checks Act), would have closed the "Charleston loophole" — the gap that allowed Dylann Roof to buy the gun he used to murder nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church because his background check wasn't completed within three days. McConnell killed that bill too.

By the time the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed in 2022 (after McConnell stepped down as Majority Leader), it contained only modest provisions — nowhere near universal background checks. Thousands of preventable gun deaths occurred in the years McConnell blocked action.

Reference List:

• H.R. 8, Bipartisan Background Checks Act, 116th and 117th Congress

• Pew Research Center, "Public Views on Gun Policy" (multiple years)

• Giffords Law Center, "Universal Background Checks" policy summary

• Everytown for Gun Safety, "Background Checks on All Gun Sales" research