FACT CHECK: Biden Cites Mass Shootings, Claims Expanding Background Checks Would Give More Safety

CLAIM: During his Thursday night primetime speech President Biden claimed that we  “should expand background checks” and talked of how such checks would keep guns out of the wrong hands.

VERDICT: Mostly False.

The United States has had FBI background checks on retail gun sales since 1998. Have those checks kept some guns out of the wrong hands? Certainly.

However, Biden’s speech was framed around mass shootings–he used examples of mass shootings in the prelude to the speech.

What are “expanded background checks”?

When Biden and other Democrats push to...