Clinton signs the Brady Bill requiring background checks through NICS

President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act on November 30, 1993, requiring federally licensed firearms dealers to conduct background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System before completing handgun sales. The law was named after James Brady, Reagan's press secretary permanently disabled in the 1981 assassination attempt. The NRA had blocked the bill for seven years; the Supreme Court later struck down its mandatory state-enforcement provision in Printz v. United States (1997) but upheld the federal NICS system.