President Biden laid out his gun control agenda on Thursday night, saying America should be unified around the provisions he suggested.

The big picture: Biden called on Congress to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, which was passed in 1994 and expired under President George W. Bush in 2004. He also called for expansions on background checks, raising the age limits to purchase semi-automatic rifles and red flag laws.

Biden added there should be a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.

President Joe Biden delivered just the second evening address of his presidency on Thursday night, almost begging Congress to pass gun control legislation following yet another wave of mass shootings stretching from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Buffalo, New York.

“Enough,” Biden said repeatedly, invoking the dozens of school shootings that have swept America over the past decade. “We can’t fail the American people again.”

Claim: Those buying ammunition in the United States are not subject to a background check, but anyone who buys certain nasal decongestants is added to a national database.

Rating: Mostly True

What’s True

Federal law does not require background checks for ammunition purchases, and neither do the vast majority of states. In the vast majority of states, anyone who buys a nasal decongestant containing pseudoephedrine is added to a database, and law enforcement officers can access details about those buyers. However …

What’s False

The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been “fake”.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

“The House passed two bills Thursday to require background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and to allow an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases.” (AP News)

Read the bills here and here. (Congress.gov)

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 was reintroduced on Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced on his Twitter account.

“It’s simple: background checks keep guns out of dangerous hands,” Nadler wrote. “More than 90% of Americans want this bill signed into law. Let’s get it passed and save lives.”

The Illinois State Police received a record number of background check requests for potential firearms transactions in March, with the vast majority coming in the last two weeks of the month as concerns over the new coronavirus heightened and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order took effect.

Thomas Caldwell was a veteran in his 60s with a soft physique, oval glasses, no income, and a history of mental illness. “I’ve been schizophrenic all my life, hearing voices,” he once said in a courtroom. He didn’t have a license to sell firearms, but that hadn’t stopped him. In 2015, according to prosecutors, police found a Glock in a Milwaukee drug house and quickly linked it to him. He’d purchased it only the day before.

Background checks on gun purchases hit a record of 28.3 million in 2019, amid calls for tighter gun restrictions by the Democratic presidential candidates.

“Democrats have been the best gun salesmen of the year,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of Second Amendment Foundation, a pro-gun group.

The FBI conducted more than 28.3 million background checks last year through its National Instant Criminal Background Checks Systems, or NICS. That represents a 3% increase from the record 27.5 million set in presidential election year 2016.

WASHINGTON – The FBI is handling a surge in background checks this year after a series of mass shootings has renewed calls for more restrictive gun laws.

Some of the biggest spikes came in August and September after attacks in El Paso and Odessa, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 38 people dead.

Past spikes in background checks, a rough barometer of gun sales, have been driven by fears that lawmakers would tighten gun laws.