This is the second in a series of stories on the debate Wednesday night.
By Matthew Langston and Misha Maruf
After months of attacking each other through press releases, social media and ads, Republican Dan Bishop and Democrat Dan McCready clashed on the debate stage Wednesday night. Charlotte’s WBTV and The Charlotte Observer hosted the debate between the two main candidates in the special election for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.
The two candidates discussed gun control and mass shootings during the debate, and they made several claims on those issues.
While neither Bishop or McCready support bans on assault-style weapons or high-capacity magazines, the two disagreed on the effectiveness of comprehensive background checks and the roots of gun violence.
McCready argued that the best way to handle assault weapons is through comprehensive background checks, a position that he said 90 percent of Americans support. He also claimed that a white nationalist “can just roll up into a gun show right here in North Carolina and buy all the assault weapons they want.”
Polls have consistently found that a large and often bipartisan majority of Americans do support comprehensive background checks for private gun sales and gun-show purchases.
National polls in 2016 and 2017 also showed support for required background checks on all gun purchases ranging from 84 percent to 94 percent. This trend can also be clearly seen in Gallup polls. Support for background checks on all gun purchases was 86 percent in a 2015 poll, 96 percent in a 2017 poll, and 92 percent in a 2018 poll.
McCready’s claim about white nationalists being able to acquire assault weapons from a gun show refers to what’s often called the “gun show loophole.” Under federal law, only licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks when they sell firearms at gun shows, so a person could buy a firearm at a gun show without having to undergo a background check.
Some states require anyone selling or transferring a firearm to do a background check on the person receiving the gun, which would apply to unlicensed dealers at gun shows. North Carolina law only requires sellers to verify that a person seeking to buy a handgun has a permit to do so. Handgun and concealed carry permits are issued by the local county sheriff after a background check is done on the applicant.
Bishop claimed that the “scourge” of mass shootings is largely new and said that “something is going on, besides guns.” Bishop then put most of the blame for mass shootings on mental health issues and questioned whether the “gun show loophole” was real. He also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of comprehensive background checks and whether that policy would have prevented any mass shootings.
A Washington Post analysis done earlier this month found that mass shootings, which it defined as a shooting that kills four or more people, have occurred more often in recent years. That analysis said that before Columbine, a mass shooting occurred approximately every six months. After the 2015 Charleston church shooting, which killed 9, the frequency of mass shootings increased to one about every six weeks.
McCready then questioned Bishop’s claim that comprehensive background checks would not be an effective policy. McCready also claimed that anywhere from a fifth to a third of all gun sales and transfers go without a background check.
Although 40 percent of gun owners in 1994 had recently obtained a firearm without a background check, a survey from 2017 on firearm acquisition found that 22 percent of gun owners who reported obtaining their most recent firearm within the previous two years said they did so without a background check. For those who purchased the firearms, the number was even lower at 13 percent.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has said that one in five gun sales are done without a background check. The organization, which has called for expanding background checks to gun show purchases and private transfers, has also expressed concern about “unlicensed gun sales made online [that] are unregulated and unchecked.”
Bishop responded by saying that McCready could not identify any mass shooting that resulted from a shooter acquiring a gun from a gun show without a background check.
Three guns used in the 1999 Columbine school shooting, which killed 13, were purchased for the two shooters, who also died, at a gun show. The shooters, who were too young to buy guns themselves, had a friend buy the weapons for them from private sellers without a background check.
In February 2018, a New York Times study found that the majority of guns in 19 mass shootings were legally bought after the gunmen passed background checks. An ongoing Washington Post analysis found that out of 316 guns used in mass shootings since 1966, 178 weapons were obtained legally, 59 were obtained illegally and 79 were unclear.
At least two people who carried out mass shootings should have been blocked from purchasing firearms when their background checks were carried out. Neither ultimately were due to lapses or missing records in the federal background check system.
The Sutherland Springs church shooter was dishonorably discharged from the military and had convictions for domestic violence that barred him from buying or owning firearms, while the Charleston church shooter had a drug arrest that barred him from buying a pistol like the one he used in the shooting.
