NICS 2009 $200 Million Approved Only $30 Million Spent 2009 & 2010

[RamboLiberal]

Virginia Tech prompted Congress to pass a bill in 2008, the NICS Improvement Act, to provide more financial incentive for states to submit records to the background check system. Since the shooting, the number of mental health records submitted to NICS increased significantly, but as of March 2010, 23 states have submitted fewer than 100 records to the system since its creation, and nine states have submitted none.

Arizona had no records in the NICS system before Virginia Tech. Since the shooting it has submitted 3,102 records. That is still a relatively small number, however, compared to New York’s, whose 151,094 records are still considered an incomplete tally.

“That’s only 42 percent of the records that should be there,” said John Feinblatt, chief policy advisor to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We have a background check system that’s like Swiss cheese. There are more holes than cheese.”

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Congress has also doled out only a fraction of the money it originally authorized for the program. Since 2009, almost $200 million has been approved for the system, but only $20 million was spent in 2009 and $10 million in 2010.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41131860/ns/politics-more_politics/

[Glassunion]

1. K&R... Everyone should read this.

We make a fucking law.

We provide the funding.

And once again... The ball is dropped.

I'm not saying that the shooting in Arizona would have been stopped.

But I have seen the question here in the past week "how do we prevent the mentally unstable from purchasing guns?". Am I the only one that thinks that if the states use the money, organize their records, insure they are accurate and... um... I don't know... SUBFUCKINGMIT them it may have a huge impact and greatly improve the NICS system?

I agreed with the Brady Background Checks. I agreed again when it was expanded to the new NICS system. I am left wondering how good is it? How accurate is the info? What else is missing? It almost seems that sometimes, those we elect to be in charge, and those they appoint want every fucking thing they touch be a dismal fucking failure.

*rant over*

Go Jets!!!

[SteveM]

2. Good post. Example of a law unenforced, even when $ is available.

[Maine_Nurse]

3. This is why

many of us say that new laws are neither needed, nor would they be useful. We have tons of "stop the criminals" laws on the books that simply don't get fully utilized. Either in things like this or like in large metropolitan areas where otherwise-disqualifying felonies are pleaded down to misdemeanors to save the prosecutors time and keep from overfilling the jails/prisons.

[SteveM]

4. Makes you wonder just what happened to all those other millions. nt

[Glassunion]

6. Chrome, Gold and Diamonds ain't cheap...

[russ1943]

5. From the same article......

"One reason the system is so porous, according to members of Congress who pushed for NICS improvement, is that states are not required to participate — something the National Rifle Association, the powerful pro-gun lobby, advocated for.

“By insisting the program be voluntary and be subject to annual appropriations, they knew that the program would have only a marginal restriction on the purchase of firearms,” said Rep. Jerry Moran, D-Va., speaking about the NRA’s influence on the legislation."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41131860/ns/politics-more_politics/

[Callisto32]

8. But the same people that will deride this want to let the states be laborotories, which is why

we can't incorporate the 2nd against the states, right?

Which is it? Are the states free to make their own gun policy or or they not?

[Glassunion]

7. Kick