The Washington Post is reporting this morning that senior house Democrats and the NRA have reached a deal on background check legislation both groups can accept. The talks started shortly after the massacre at Virginia Tech demonstrated the inadequacy of the current background check law. Fox News.Com reports that the legislation "would require states to supply more-thorough records, including for any mental illness-related court action against a would-be gun purchaser."
According to Post reporter Jonathan Weisman
To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators in weeks of painstaking talks. Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records. The federal government would be permanently barred from charging gun buyers or sellers a fee for their background checks. In addition, faulty records such as duplicative names or expunged convictions would have to be scrubbed from the database.House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), a former NRA board member, led the talks. The Post quotes Dingell as saying
"I've been involved with this legislative effort for years, working to address the shortcomings of NICS. I'm confident that this legislation will do it. No law will prevent evildoers from doing evil acts, but this law will help ensure that those deemed dangerous by the courts will not be able to purchase a weapon."
