Report: Fake IDs Foil Gun Background Checks

W A S H I N G T O N, March 21 -- All it takes to get around Brady law background checks on gun purchases is a home-made fake I.D., according to a new government report.

Undercover agents using fake identifications easily foiled the national background check system, intended to prevent people with criminal records from buying guns, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office.

The current system "cannot ensure that the prospective buyer is not a felon or other prohibited person," the report concluded.

The GAO document details an investigation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, in which agents from the Office of Special Investigations tried to use false identifications to buy firearms from licensed dealers in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia and West Virginia.

Their success rate was 100 percent.

Scanners, Color Printers, and Off-the-Shelf Software

The agents' fake IDs used fictitious names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, and were created using off-the-shelf software, a scanner, a laminator, and a color printer to make them, the report said.

"The name could be Bugs Bunny and as long as there is no criminal record on file, the gun can be sold," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., an outspoken gun control advocate who asked the GAO to conduct its investigation.

The results of the investigation cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Brady Act — the landmark gun control legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Clinton in 1993.

Under the Brady Act, gun dealers are required to contact the NICS — a computerized system developed and run by the FBI — prior to every sale.

The system then checks the name of the prospective purchaser against a database of the names of people legally prohibited from owning firearms — including convicted felons, illegal aliens, people dishonorably discharged from the military and people with mental defects.

But the system has no way of verifying that the name provided by the buyer is actually theirs. That gaping loophole allowed the undercover agents to use fake names to obtain handguns and rifles, including semi-automatic weapons with high-capacity magazines.