Can we have universal background checks?

John, as long as the bad guys acquire guns illegally, background checks will do.... squat! I don't own a gun - never have! Just sayin...

Yes, that's possible, because the information isn't pooled. Information becomes much more dangerous when it is joined than when it is spread out into various bits and pieces. For example, your last name probably doesn't let me identify who you are, nor would your ZIP code or your month of birth but your name, month of birth and ZIP code together makes me quite likely to be able to identify you specifically.

In short, there is a big difference between records kept by gun dealers that will only be viewed in specific investigations, and records in a national database that can be searched by various agencies and cross-checked with other databases to construct a profile of you. The recent proposal for expanding background checks in fact made it a crime to attempt to pool records in that way.

Once the data is captured the Govt. can manipulate it any way they want...