PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES 23 NEW EXECUTIVE ACTIONS!

[DreamGypsy]

84. 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

I recall recently seeing a statement that a number of states refused to implement the NICS system or at least to implement it fully

Here's a recent interview from NPR: Gun Background Check System Lacks Money, State Involvement

The interviewee is Steve Buford, the assistant bureau chief at the California Bureau of Firearms. California does participate fully in the NICS. Buford elaborates on a few of theses issues:

(NB: This article is a transcript. I edited out the 'you knows' and connected bits of sentences to make the comments more readable. I think I preserved the intent. The intact transcript is available at the link and NPR probably has the video available.)

I think the big issue there is who bears the burden of implementing and maintaining that restitution program? The grant monies that the feds have placed out there for these particular programs just aren't sufficient enough to fund the program. You can't just lay it out there and say, go implement this program. There has to be sufficient funding and it can't be small amounts of funding. It has to be sufficient to fund the entire program.

There are some gaps in the system, but I'd rather have the system with the gaps than no system at all, no federal system at all. We use federal records all the time to deny gun purchases people illegally and unlawfully, they could be criminals. We use it to deny people that are mental defectives in other states and people that are under restraining orders.

My question is: Why not commit the federal excise tax on firearm and ammunition purchases to funding of NICS and any other state programs involved in the 26 Executive Actions? And make the tax rate float to insure that the systems ARE fully funded?

OK, clearly the zeroth answer is that the current Congress would never pass such legislation, despite all the angst about cutting Federal deficits. Yeah.

But are their obvious problems with the approach? Maybe a portion of the alcohol excise tax could be designated as well. And, as more states legalize marijuana, an similar excise tax could be added.