On the third anniversary of the February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Joe Biden called on Congress to expand background checks for gun buyers, acting on one of several campaign promises he made to tighten gun control. But Biden hasn't been able to get a bill through the divided Senate.

In March, the House passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, H.R. 8, which would require background checks before someone buys or transfers a gun from a private seller. The prohibition would have limited exceptions, such as a gift between spouses. The legislation never received a vote in the Senate.

The House also passed H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021. The bill would give federal law enforcement 10 days to do background checks before a gun can be transferred to an unlicensed person, up from the current three days. Senate Republicans blocked the bill.

During the last couple of decades, Democratic lawmakers have generally favored further gun regulation while Republican lawmakers have generally resisted it, said Kristin A. Goss, a Duke University professor of public policy and political science. 

There have been a few exceptions, including Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who co-sponsored a background check bill after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. 

"But the alignment between position on guns and party affiliation has been strengthening over time," Goss said. "Thus, I think it's fair to say that universal background check legislation is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate as long as it is so closely divided by party and the filibuster remains in place."

With no likely path toward expanding gun background checks, the Biden administration has turned its focus to funding community violence intervention programs, which seek to engage the small group of people who are at high risk for gun violence. In June, the White House announced that 15 jurisdictions committed to use a portion of their American Rescue Plan funding or other public funding to invest in violence intervention programs. The American Rescue Plan provides $350 billion in state and local funding and $122 billion in school funding that can be tapped for public safety strategies.

The community violence-intervention approach "works remarkably well and is not about guns or gun control," said David M. Kennedy, professor of criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "This administration for the first time in the country's history is making a substantial investment in that kind of violence prevention."

While these programs address the underlying goal of containing gun violence, they're not the same as requiring background checks for all gun sales. 

Biden faces an uphill battle to enact background check requirements, but we will continue to monitor his progress. For now, we rate Biden's promise as Stalled. 

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