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If we are going to be serious about enforcing the law, we have to have a background record check system to make sure that people don't get weapons who shouldn't.

There should be a background check every time a firearm is transferred. You shouldn't be able to go to a gun show and buy guns without a background check. There are Internet gun sales, classified ads in the newspapers - and you can buy guns without background checks.

Expanding background checks will help create a uniform standard for all gun purchases and prevent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from obtaining powerful weapons.

We should have a system of licensing and registration, we should treat firearms the same way that automobiles are treated so that people have to pass a safety test.

Making improvements to our background check system and cracking down on illegal gun trafficking are common-sense ways to prevent violence without punishing law abiding gun owners. We owe it to the American people to take real action to reduce gun violence in our communities.

We are not saying that every idiot out there should own a gun - and there should be better background checks on guns. Not everybody should have the right.

Gun owners and non-gun owners alike agree on expanding background checks, making gun trafficking a serious crime with stiff penalties, making it illegal for all stalkers and all domestic abusers to buy guns, and expanding mental health resources so the mentally ill find it easier to receive treatment than to buy firearms.

Obviously, we think it's important to make sure that firearms do not get in the hands of people who are criminals, convicted felons or adjudicated as mentally ill.

We need sensible gun safety measures. The federal government could do something about this; they could show up.

Most Americans think there's already universal background checks. They don't understand why there wouldn't be a background check to purchase a weapon.