Make use of the NICS system mandatory, but open it to private gun sellers.

[friendly_iconoclast]

Use the carrot and stick approach to encourage use:

1) Civil and criminal immunity for those transferors who properly use it.

2)In addition to whatever penalties entail from not using it, make the illegal transferor
accessory before the fact for whatever crimes may be committed with the gun(s).

I suspect most opposition to this would come from A) FFL holders who would miss
the corporate welfare, and B) antigun types who feel this doesn't restrict guns enough.

[Indydem]

1. I think you may have missed a couple of factors here.

1. Private sellers (unless they are purposefully corrupt) don't WANT to sell to those who would fail a background check. They love firearms and they love the hobby culture. The vast majority of them would never sell to someone who may bring disgrace to their group. As for the reason they don't do BG checks now, well you know that - they can't. If you opened the system up to every private seller and ever dealer at gun shows without making it GD unwieldy, I can guarantee 99% of them would gladly use it.

2. FFL license holders aren't receiving "corporate welfare" by any definition I know of. Perhaps you can elaborate on this. I think I know where you are going, but I don't want to assume.

[friendly_iconoclast]

3. Mandatory transfers through dealers would be guaranteed income for dealers.

Nothing against them, as a group, but why subsidize them?

The antigun types don't WANT the NICS opened up to private sellers, as to do
so wouldn't 'punish' the eeebil gun owners enough for their tastes.

Believe me, I've no desire to see unqualified people get firearms- but I also don't
see why the process should be any more complicated then necessary.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. The law was written to intentionally block private use, and that was a bad thing

There have been reports of the current system being overrun due to inadequate capacity. That would also need to be fixed.

In CA there are FFLs who charge reasonable rates for transfer services. They make it up on volume.

[Glaug-Eldare]

4. There's a privacy issue that I think needs to be carefully addressed.

It should not be possible to get away with sending a fictitious NICS request on somebody (or many somebodies) for the purpose of fishing expeditions.

What I'd like to do is basically create a free, easily-accessible "FFL-lite" for private sellers. Somebody who intends to perform a private sale should have an individual, authenticated profile with the ATF. A NICS request would have to verify their identity, as well as send a physical copy of the request and its results to the buyer. If somebody has a frivolous check performed on them as a "buyer", this will allow them to pursue legal action against the "seller."

[Atypical Liberal]

5. I don't quite see the privacy issue. Right now NICS only checks about things of public record.

Nothing that NICS tracks currently is not already a matter of public record.