MOST ACADEMICS come to criminal record issues via their commitment to offender rehabilitation and reentry. While I share that concern, I was drawn to criminal rec ords via research on gun control. The 1968 Gun Control Act established the foundational principle of US firearms policy.“Law-abiding” people should have easy access to firearms, while “criminals”(and a few other unreliable categories) should be prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. A felony conviction distinguished a law-abiding person from a criminal; years later, Congress disqualified persons convicted of domestic violence misdemeanor convictions. The 1968 act required a person purchasing a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL) to fill out a document swearing he or she had never been convicted of a felony. However, there was no way for the dealer to verify the truth of these statements. In response, gun control proponents lobbied for a law mandating that prospective purchasers be subjected to a criminal record check by a designated state or county “chief law enforcement officer.” The NRA and other gun own ers’ rights groups opposed the idea on the ground that criminal record checking would require a substantial waiting period. The logjam-breaking compromise that allowed passage of the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act added a provision to