CHICAGO – The American Medical Association said it will back legislation to require criminal background checks for all gun sales, whether they are public or private.
The House of Delegates voted at its annual meeting to approve the new policy position as a public health issue. The debate and vote took place June 10, the same day as an Oregon school shooting where a high school student and the shooter died.
The resolution to support background checks was brought forward by the Illinois delegation to the House.
Alicia Ault/Frontline Medical News
The AMA House of Delegates supports legislation that would require background checks on all firearm purchases.
Dr. Maryanne C. Bombaugh, an alternate delegate with the Massachusetts Medical Society, introduced an amendment to extend background checks to all gun transfers, as well.
Dr. Bombaugh, an ob.gyn. in Falmouth, Mass., said that adding transfers would help close many loopholes that private sellers use to skirt background checks.
But some delegates said that might be impossible to enforce, and might interfere with transfers among family members. Louisiana delegate Dr. Vincent Culotta said that he had been given a gun by his father to use for hunting when he was younger, and that he did not think that type of transfer should be subject to a background check.
Another delegate, a psychiatrist, said that background checks on transfers could potentially stop family members from taking possession of guns that relatives might use in suicide attempts.
But others said they supported more scrutiny of transfers. One delegate said it might prevent one person from buying a gun for someone else who could not pass a background check.
Another suggested that requiring checks on transfers – even for family members – made sense, just as transferring ownership of a vehicle required a check that the recipient possessed a driver’s license.
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