For Universal Background Checks

Prevent suicide

• According to a case study led by Rebecca S. Spicer of  the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in late 2000, firearm suicide attempts have the highest success rate of any lethal method at 82.5 percent. 
• Harvard’s School of Public Health cites that a key reason for this is the accessibility of guns, stating that a guns pose a greater risk than other methods of suicide as they are more quickly accessible and people are less able to change their minds in the final moments.

Decrease domestic violence and homicide 

• Guns pose massive threats to life in cases of domestic violence. According to a John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1997, just having a gun present in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500 percent for women. 
• A study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Swanson of the Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine found that requiring criminal background checks for guns would produce an overall 19 percent reduction in intimate partner homicides.

Decrease law enforcement deaths

• According to the American Journal of Public Health in 2017, states with gun control involving strong background checks have 51 percent fewer firearm related police officer deaths than states with more lax gun control.
• According to the United States Public Health Service Bureau, the 5 states that lead the country in rates of fatal police shootings also had the most relaxed firearm purchase laws.

Combat drug cartels

• Gun trades don’t only impact gun availability in the US. The Washington Post writes in 2016, between 2009 and 2014, 70 percent of crime guns recovered and traced in Mexico originated from within the US. They note that these weapons are often purchased legally in the US, particularly through private sales.

Ineffective at saving lives

• Several states have already implemented universal background checks. They have shown no evidence of reducing crime. According to a 2013 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  Uniform Crime Report, after instituting universal background checks in 2013, Delaware’s homicide rate increased from 4.4 per 1,000 to 5.8 per 1,000 in 2014. Washington also faced an increase from 2.4 per 1000 to 2.5. During this time, the national average remained constant at 2.4.

Against Universal Background Checks

Fail to keep guns out of criminal hands

• According to a 2001 Department of Justice study, 78.8 percent of criminals do not purchase their guns from retail stores. The study found, 39.6 percent of criminals buy their guns from friends or family while another 39.2 percent buy guns from the street or other illegal means. 
• Universal background checks lack the ability to ensure transfers of ownership from friends and family will be meaningfully addressed. This means universal background checks do little to impact these sales. 

Violate the Fifth Amendment

• The Fifth Amendment guarantees that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.” 
• As former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano stated in 2016, “Background checks compel people to speak and provide information about themselves in order to obtain a gun.”
• Napolitano went on to state the background checks can be considered an infringement of self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment because gun purchasers are required to provide evidence against themselves in order to obtain a gun.