NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In this age of political division, polling shows one thing that most Americans agree on is background checks for gun purchases.
President Joe Biden signed Tuesday an executive order meant to expand those checks in an effort to curb gun violence.
The order stops short of requiring universal background checks, but is meant to make sure all people engaged in the business of selling guns are performing background checks on buyers.
The executive order asks the U.S. Attorney General to clarify what exactly it means to be engaged in the business of selling guns — a first step to getting sellers who are skirting background check laws, or who are unaware they need to do them, to start performing checks.
In Tennessee, authorized dealers have access to a portal that links to the TBI. Once they input a potential buyer's information, a decision can be instantaneous, or take up to several hours.
Individual sellers also have an option not to sell to someone for any reason.
"It's extremely important to us, we do not want to put a firearm into the hands of someone that we feel could be unsafe, could be a danger to themselves or somebody else," said Rick Rifley with Royal Range in Nashville.
Today's executive order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to issue a public report analyzing how gun manufacturers market to minors and to all Americans through the use of military imagery.
