Hinckley was a legal resident of Texas, where he bought the gun. Accordingly, there is no possibility that a background check on Hinckley would have revealed that he was not a Texas resident. Moreover, the Brady Bill check does not include a residence check.
Indeed, a police background check was run on Hinckley a few days before he bought the guns, and nothing turned up. Hinckley was caught trying to smuggle another gun (while he already owned) aboard a plane on October 9, 1980, in Nashville. His name was run through the National Crime Information Center, which reported, correctly, that he had no felony convictions in any jurisdiction. He was promptly released after paying a fine of $62.50 and pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.
On October 13, 1980, John Hinckley walked into Rocky's Pawn Shop, in Dallas, Texas, and walked out shortly thereafter with two .22 caliber RG revolvers. As with the retail purchase of any firearm, the gun dealer was required to complete a federal form which listed Hinckley's address. Because Hinckley was buying two handguns in the same five-day period (in fact, at the same moment), the dealer also filled out another federal form. That federal form was sent to the local office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
By federal law, the dealer was required to verify that Hinckley was a resident of Texas, the state in which he was buying the handgun. When asked for identification, Hinckley offered his Texas driver's license.
Hinckley moved around a great deal, from one Texas address to another. The Lubbock address he listed on his federal gun form (the address for a rooming house) was different from both his driver's license address and his address in the then-current Lubbock phone book. Of course moving frequently is not a federal crime. Because the only use of the driver's license (on a gun purchase) is to prove identity and residence in the state, there is no federal requirement that a handgun purchaser reside at the street address shown on his license, as long as the address is in the same state. Even if Hinckley had deliberately made a false statement about his address, the act would not have been illegal; a false statement on the federal form is illegal only if it relates to the purchaser's eligibility. While a person's state of residence does relate to eligibility, address within that state does not.
In other words, Hinckley's purchase would have been illegal under federal law only if he were not a resident of Texas. Merely offering a Texas driver's license with a street address that was no longer current and was different from the address put on the federal form was not illegal.
During the previous summer, Hinckley had attended both summer sessions at Texas Tech in Lubbock. According to federal gun regulations, a university student is considered a resident of the area where he attends school, and may purchase firearms there. When Hinckley was arrested in Nashville (a few days before he bought the handguns), he identified himself as a Texas resident.
Significantly, Hinckley, after the assassination attempt, was the subject of an intensive federal investigation. The federal government used every resource possible to convict Hinckley. Yet, Hinckley was not charged with illegally purchasing the handguns in Texas. Had the prosecutors believed that Hinckley was guilty of an illegal gun purchase, the charges would likely have been brought. The case could have been prosecuted before a conservative Dallas jury, rather than a liberal Washington one. Further, Hinckley would then have had to convince the Texas jury that he was insane not just on the day of the assassination attempt, but six months beforehand.
If the full resources of the Department of Justice did not find enough evidence even to charge Hinckley with an illegal gun purchase, it is not realistic to claim that a routine background check would have found the exact same transaction illegal.
In any case, law enforcement authorities already had an opportunity to run a check on Hinckley. Because Hinckley bought two handguns on the same day, his purchase was immediately reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (as it was then known) as required by federal law. At the time, the Bureau reportedly ran name checks as standard procedure, but did not run detailed background checks on multiple handgun purchasers (such as Hinckley) even though it had the legal authority to do so. Perhaps BATF concluded that the expense of running the checks exceeded the likely benefits.
Hypothesize the fact that Mr. Grossman and Mrs. Brady assume (but for which the Justice Department apparently had no evidence): Hinckley was no longer a Texas resident. Would the assassination have been prevented by a background check? Almost certainly not.
How would the police have found Hinckley's "lie"? If they had looked in the phone book, they would have seen Hinckley listed as a Lubbock resident. To ascertain that Hinckley did not reside in Texas, the police would have had to visit his purported residence at least once. Since many police departments do not have the time to visit the scene of residential burglaries, it is not realistic to assume that they would have bothered to verify the address listed as Hinckley's residence.
Most importantly, the police never would have found the "lie" about Hinckley's address, because they would not be checking addresses. Under the Brady Act, the police do not verify anyone's address. As Mrs. Brady’s own organization stated, in lobbying for passage of the Brady Act, "The ‘investigation’ is limited to the review of police and court records."
Sources: Hinckley trial transcript, pp. 1489-1559. Texas driver's license #9457099, issued to John W. Hinckley, Jr., 1612 Avenue Y, Lubbock, Texas, in Hinckley trial transcript, pp. 1751-52. Southwestern Bell, Lubbock-Slaton Telephone Directory (November 1979) (listing "John W. Hinckley...409 University Av."). 18 United States Code § 922(a)(6). ATF Rul. 80-21, reprinted in Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, (Your Guide to) Federal Firearms Regulation 1988-89, ATF P 5300,4 (6-88), p. 73. |
