WASHINGTON — QUESTION:
Can someone convicted of domestic violence find a way to purchase a firearm? Can someone on the FBI's 'No Fly List' purchase a firearm?
ANSWER:
Federal law explicitly prohibits someone who is convicted of domestic violence from buying a gun, however, not every seller needs to run a background check.
Being on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database doesn't disqualify you from purchasing a weapon.
SOURCES:
Gun ban for individuals convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence — 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9)
FBI spokesperson
Congressional Research Service- Terrorist Watch List Screening and Background Checks for Firearms
Adam Winkler- Second Amendment Expert and Professor of Law at UCLA
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives- "Do I need a license to buy and sell firearms?"
PROCESS:
Verify sets the record straight by fact-checking what you read on social media, before you accidentally hit share.
Cory Booker and Dana Loesch sparred on social media after the NRA spokesperson said Booker was spreading bogus gun laws.
Booker took questions from a live audience during a CNN Town Hall, March 28. He fielded questions about religion, his hometown and gun control.
"This is what [the NRA] is doing for Americans: they are defending loopholes, like that loophole that if a man is convicted of beating his wife he can find a loop hole to go out and find a gun and murder her," Booker said. "They are defending not their membership, but loop holes. Like the loop hole that says that someone on the Terrorist No Fly List in our country can still go to a gun show and buy weapons."
His comments made waves in the Twitter-sphere, so we're fact-checking whether or not they're true.
Can someone convicted of domestic violence find a way to purchase a firearm?
Keep in mind, Booker didn't say it's legal, only that person can find a way.
That's technically true.
Federal law explicitly prohibits someone who is convicted of domestic violence from buying a gun. That's a fact.
But here's the deal, not everyone selling a gun needs to run a name through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Laws regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say that only federally licensed dealers need to run background checks.
Private, unlicensed sellers, who make occasional sales from their personal collections or antiques, don't need to.
And therein lies Booker's "can find a way," line.
If private, unlicensed sellers don't need to run a background check, guns could accidentally slip into the hands of someone otherwise barred.
"Due to the gun show loop hole, anyone, even a wife beater or convicted felon, can easily obtain a firearm illegally by purchasing one from a private seller (ie, not a licensed dealer) at a gun show or through classified ads," Adam Winkler, a UCLA Law Professor and Second Amendment expert, said.
Private occasional sellers can choose to sell a firearm through a third party licensed dealer, and run that background check, but they aren't obligated to do so by law.
"Private sellers are not required to conduct background checks and it is common to find people walking around gun shows advertising guns for sale without background checks," Winkler said.
Can someone on the FBI's No Fly List purchase a firearm?
The FBI has a Terrorist Screening Center which maintains a Terrorist Screening Database, colloquially called the "No Fly List" or "Terrorism Watch List."
The Database contains Intel on individuals who the U.S. government knows or suspects are terrorists.
Our Verify researchers reviewed Congressional Research Reports and spoke with the FBI, who confirmed that being on the government's watch list, in it of itself, does not disqualify you from passing a NICS check.
"To add someone to the TSDB, there must be a reasonable suspicion the individual is a known or suspected terrorist," an FBI spokesperson said. "While the standard allows the intelligence community to watch-list suspected terrorists, it is not high enough to legally deny the less than one percent of watchlisted individuals who are U.S. persons their constitutionally protected right to purchase a firearm."
Between 2004-15 approximately 2,477 people on the database were involved in firearm background checks and 2,265 of them passed, according to the Government Accountability Office.
So we can Verify, Booker's claims are factual.