[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5222-5223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CLOSING THE GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on March 4, 2010, John Patrick Bedell, a 
36-year-old Californian with a history of mental illness, arrived at 
the Pentagon after a manic, cross-country journey. At 6:40 pm, Mr. 
Bedell, armed with two 9mm handguns, walked to the security checkpoint 
at the Pentagon entrance and started shooting. Three Pentagon security 
officers, Colin Richards, Jeffrey Amos and Marvin Carraway, returned 
fire and brought down Mr. Bedell, who later died from his injuries. Mr. 
Amos and Mr. Carraway were wounded in the exchange, but thankfully have 
fully recovered. If not for the decisive action taken by these brave 
officers, this apparently random attack could have claimed more 
victims. And while I am pleased the Pentagon's security system worked 
in this instance, I remain deeply troubled by the fact that Mr. Bedell 
was able to acquire firearms in the first place.
  Since the shooting, law enforcement officials have been able to 
partially trace the firearms used by Mr. Bedell. One handgun was sold 
last year to a private individual at a Las Vegas gun show, and that 
person later resold the gun to a third person. At that point, according 
to authorities, they were not able to further trace the gun's ownership 
history until Mr. Bedell opened fire on March 4. This murky trail 
perfectly illustrates the danger of unregulated, private firearm 
transactions.
  Under the Brady Law, before an individual can purchase a gun from a 
licensed dealer, they must pass a background check to ensure they are 
not legally prohibited from purchasing a firearm. In 2008, 9.9 million 
background checks were conducted for firearm purchases, 147,000 of 
which were rejected. The majority of these denials were the consequence 
of a prior conviction, indictment or a history of mental illness. 
However, when an individual purchases a handgun from a private citizen, 
who is not a licensed gun dealer, there are no requirements to ensure 
that the purchaser is not in a prohibited category. Neither the Las 
Vegas gun show sale, nor the subsequent private transactions that 
ultimately resulted in Mr.

[[Page 5223]]

Bedell acquiring the firearm, were regulated. Due to this ``gun show 
loophole'' in federal law, authorities were not aware of, or able to 
block this string of private sales, which led to Mr. Bedell purchasing 
the weapon and using it to attack the Pentagon. In fact, according to 
news reports, Mr. Bedell attempted to buy a gun from a licensed firearm 
dealer in California, but the sale was blocked because he fell into a 
prohibited category.
  Because private party transactions account for approximately 40 
percent of all gun sales, current Federal background check requirements 
have a limited impact on the overall rates of gun related violent 
crime. To better protect our communities from gun related violence, 
background checks should be required for all prospective firearm 
transactions, including private transactions. To that end, I am a 
cosponsor of the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2009, S.843, which 
was introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg. This bill would extend the 
protections of the Brady Law to purchases made at gun shows, thereby 
closing the loophole that currently permits gun sales without criminal 
background checks. I urge my colleagues to take up and pass this 
commonsense legislation.

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