This bill would require a background check for every gun purchase or transfer. It also outlines steps to ensure that government agencies keep current information in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Within one year, the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) would establish a plan with states to make records available to the NICS over a four-year period. The plan would include benchmarks, and penalties (reduced grant funding) for states that fail or refuse to meet those benchmarks. Every year by July 31, federal agencies would have to submit all records of people prohibited from purchasing firearms to the NICS.

Under current law, anyone judged or proven to be "a mental defective” is prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm. "Mental defective" covers anyone who has required services or medication for mental illness, incompetency, or "marked subnormal intelligence". This bill would enter anyone who fits this classification into the NICS. 

Transferring guns between private citizens without a background check would be illegal, except in the following cases:

• The gun is transferred to a law enforcement officer, private security professional, or member of the Armed Forces in the course of their duties;

• The transfer is a gift or loan between spouses, domestic partners, parents and their children, between siblings, or between grandparents and their children;

• The transfer is to the executor of an estate, or its administrator, trustee, or personal representative;

• The transfer is temporary and the transferor has no reason to believe that the transferee intends to or will use the firearm in a crime, or is prevented from possessing firearms. This includes transfers while target shooting, hunting, trapping, fishing, or while in the presence of the transferor.