NRA: Background checks don't work

Sandy Froman, a gun rights advocate who was formerly the president of the NRA, debated gun background checks with Brady Campaign president Dan Gross at the AC360 town hall on gun violence.

Gross told Anderson, "The reality is that when you go to a gun show you can see what really happens in this country, which is, under the guise of being licensed firearms dealers, people are selling guns to people that they don't know and people who could very well be criminals, be dangerously mentally ill, and people who would be caught if they went through a federally licensed firearm dealer."

Anderson asked Froman, currently an NRA board member, if the NRA has changed its position on universal background checks. In 1999 during a House Judiciary committee hearing, current NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre stated, "We think it is reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes for anyone."

Froman confirmed. "Yes, the NRA has changed its position. And the reason its changed its position is because the system doesn't work. The NICS system is not working now. We have to get that working before we can add any more checks to that system. It's already overburdened," she said. "Let's get it working. Let's make sure the 23 states that aren't reporting the names of people who are mentally ill and have violent tendencies, let's get those reported and into the system and then we can take a look."

"I don't understand why you can't do both," Gross responded. "The reality is yes regarding the 60 percent of gun sales that require background checks are there things that we can do to improve that? Yes. Should we be committed to it, should we invest resources in it? Yes."

Senior Fellow of the Independent Women's Forum Gayle Trotter, who was also a guest on the program, said guns are an "undue burden on a fundamental constitutional right" for private sales.