A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Friday urging him to bring to a vote a measure that would reauthorize the National Criminal Instate Background Check System, following the high school mass shooting last week.
The measure would also require that compliance certifications measures were put in place and agencies such as the FBI or local law enforcement would be penalized for not reporting accurate information to the NICS.
“Background checks are the first line of defense in law enforcement’s efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers and those deemed dangerously mentally ill,” said Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., who spearheaded the effort, in a statement Friday. “Congress should immediately take up and pass the bipartisan and bicameral Fix NICS Act to close the system’s loopholes to strengthen our Nation’s background check system and make our country safer from gun violence.”
The group of 18 lawmakers want the measure to be considered once Congress is back in session next week.
Although the Fix NICS Act was passed by the House in December, it was attached to a larger measure concerning concealed-carry, which has stalled in the Senate.
Lance and the other lawmakers are requesting that the Fix NICS Act be considered as a standalone measure instead.
The letter argues that the legislation would improve “sharing of mental health and criminal record information between state and local agencies and the federal background check database.”
“Let us pass this legislation next week and take an important step toward making our Country safer from gun violence,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
The letter comes after the FBI admitted it had been notified of concerning behavior exhibited by the suspected shooter involved in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack last week, but failed to follow up on the tip.
In total, 17 individuals lost their lives in the shooting and more than a dozen more people were injured. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect, is in custody and faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.
