brady act
Brady Act. A federal law establishing a national system for quickly checking the background of a prospective handgun purchaser. • The formal name of the law is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The U.S. Supreme Court held unconstitutional the law’s interim provision, which required chief state law-enforcement officers (usu. sheriffs) to conduct background checks until the national system was in place. The act is named for James Brady, who, as a member of President Ronald Reagan’s staff, was wounded by gunfire during an attempted presidential assassination in 1981. 18 USCA §§ 921–930.
