Update – May 6, 2011: Members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.R. 1781, the House version of the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011. The bill would close gaps in the national gun background system that have enabled criminals and other dangerous people - including Tucson shooter Jared Loughner - to easily obtain firearms. 
Read the Press Release 

Update -- March 15, 2011: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today applauded President Obama for his statement in support of fixing the gun background check system and closing the loopholes that enable criminals to avoid these checks.  The President expressed his support in a March 13 opinion piece in the Arizona Daily Star. At a press conference in Washington D.C., Mayor Bloomberg was joined by Senator Schumer and more than a dozen members of Congress who will introduce the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011 in the U.S. House. 
Read the Press Release 

Update -- March 14, 2011: In a letter to a Tucson newspaper yesterday, President Obama announced his support for an improved system to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. The President called for an "instant, accurate, and comprehensive" background check system for gun sales, stressing that dangerous individuals should not be able to avoid the background check requirement altogether. His comments add to the growing momentum behind the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Fix Gun Checks campaign, which polls show also has the support of an overwhelming majority of Americans-including gun owners. 
See President Obama's Letter to the Arizona Daily Star
Read the Statement from the Coalition's Co-Chairs in Response to President Obama's Statements (in PDF)

Update -- February 23, 2011: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Charles E. Schumer announced new legislation to get all records of criminals, drug abusers, the mentally ill and other dangerous people who are legally barred from buying guns into the background check system, and to require background checks for every gun sale.
Read the press release announcing the Senate bill

On January 24, 2011, coalition co-chair Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stood with Martin Luther King III and the families of gun violence victims to urge Congress to fulfill the intent of the historic 1968 gun law and fix the nation’s broken background check system.  In conjunction with the event, Mayors Against Illegal Guns launched a new website, www.fixgunchecks.org, to urge the President and Congress to fix the background check system by (1) getting all of the names of all prohibited purchasers into the background check system and (2) requiring background checks for all gun sales. 
Download the Mayors’ Plan to Fix Gun Checks (PDF) 
Read the press release from the event

Mayors Against Illegal Guns also joined with Martin Luther King, III and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in sending an open letter to President Obama and Members of Congress urging them to fix the nation's criminal background check system. The letter appeared as a full page ad in the January 25th edition of the Washingon Post. 
Download the Print Ad (PDF)

On February 16, 2011, the National Drive to Fix Gun Checks billboard truck began its cross-country campaign. The truck keeps a running toll of the number of Americans murdered by guns since the tragic shooting in Tucson. The campaign has visited at least 25 states, meeting with mayors, members of Congress, law enforcement leaders, faith leaders, victims of gun violence, sportsmen and many other supporters to call on Washington to Fix Gun Checks.
View the coalition’s film on the 34 lives lost every day 
View Omar Samaha’s video message from Tucson 

• • Americans overwhelmingly believe that criminals, drug abusers and the mentally ill should not have access to guns: 9 out of 10 Americans and 9 out of 10 gun owners support making sure all important records about criminals and other dangerous people are in the national do-not-sell database.
    
    
  • Americans overwhelmingly believe that more needs to be done to ensure records in the background check system are complete: 89% of Americans and 89% of gun owners support full funding of the post-Virginia Tech law designed to put more records in the background check database.
    
    
  • Americans overwhelmingly believe it’s time to close the loopholes that let criminals buy guns with no background check: 86% of Americans and 81% of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun or who they buy it from.
    

The bipartisan poll was conducted jointly by Momentum Analysis, a polling firm with Democratic clients, and American Viewpoint, a polling firm with Republican clients, between January 11 and January 13, 2011. Full results of the poll are available here (PDF). 

• • Background:  In 1968, in the aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Congress passed legislation prohibiting criminals, the mentally ill, drug abusers and other dangerous people from owning guns. And yet, 34 Americans are murdered with guns every day.  The background check system is broken, and dangerous people continue to slip through the cracks:
    
    
    • Missing records: Jared Lee Loughner, the Tucson shooter, and Virginia Tech shooter Seung Hui-Cho both passed gun background checks because their records were not in the system, despite the fact that Loughner had been rejected by the Army for drug use and Cho had been adjudicated mentally ill by a judge.  
      
      
      • Millions of records of criminals, drug abusers, the seriously mentally ill and domestic violence offenders are missing from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
        
        
      • 10 states have submitted zero mental health records to NICS and 18 others have submitted fewer than 100. 
        
        
    • Loopholes in the law: Private, unlicensed sellers, who often sell at gun shows, are not required to conduct background checks.  The Columbine killers got around the system by using guns bought at a gun show from an unlicensed seller: no paperwork, no questions asked. 
      
      
      • It is estimated that 40% of all U.S. gun sales are private sales.
        
        
  • Solution: The “Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011” (S.436) introduced by Senator Schumer (D-NY) will:
    
    
    • Get all of the names of prohibited gun purchasers into the background check system by:
      
      
      • Toughening penalties for states that do not provide data to NICS:  The bill would require states to send all necessary records on felons, drug abusers, the seriously mentally ill and other dangerous people to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).  States that do not submit their target number of records will face larger reductions in federal Justice Assistance Grant funding.
        
        
      • Requiring reporting to ensure federal agencies provide data to NICS:  Heads of federal agencies would have to confirm in writing twice a year that they have provided all necessary records to NICS.
        
        
      • Clarifying the definition of “mentally ill:” The bill would clarify that people who are ordered by a court to get outpatient treatment for mental illness are prohibited from having guns.
        
        
      • Establish Mental Health Plans for Colleges and Universities: Federally funded colleges and universities would be required to report to a state mental health agency when a student is involuntarily referred for observation due to mental health concerns. The state agency would then determine whether the person needs to be reported to NICS. 
        
        
    • Require Background Checks for Every Gun Sale: The bill would require that every gun buyer must pass a background check - no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.
      
      
      • Methods:  Unlicensed sellers can check buyers by going to a federally licensed dealer who would run the check; by contacting or going to a law enforcement agency that would run the check; or by inspecting a gun permit that confirms the buyer has already passed a background check.
        
        
      • Exceptions: The bill allows some transfers of guns without background checks, including gifts of guns from one family member to another, loans of guns among people at a hunting or shooting range and inheritance of guns.
        
        
  • Support for Fixing Gun Checks:
    
    
    • In addition to the more than 550 members of the bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, more than 275,000 Americans have signed a petition urging Congress and the President to take action to fix the background check system.
      
      
    • According to a bipartisan poll conducted in January 2011 and released by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, there is overwhelming support for fixing gun background checks:
      
      
      • 90 percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners support fixing gaps in the government databases that are meant to prevent the seriously mentally ill, drug abusers and others from buying guns.
        
        
      • 86 percent of Americans and 81 percent of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun or who they buy it from.

Download this information (in PDF)