This is a thoughtful read. I remember when NICS was passed and we the gun owners knew it would just be a boon doggle, as it has been. However, if the money's going to be spend by we the people to do NICS, it should be done well. 

Taxpayers should be able to sue criminally ineffective governments. If only ...

Take universal background checks as an example. Although these could probably be legislated in a way that respects gun owners’ privacy and the Second Amendment, there is no evidence that any significant amount of crime is committed using the very small minority of guns whose sale would be affected — i.e., intrastate purchases in the 31 states that do not already require a background check. We are not aware of even one mass shooting committed with such a gun, and we doubt that many such guns are used in common crimes either. In short, universal background checks are an attainable but not very useful idea. They wouldn’t prevent much violence.

As another example, take prohibitions on the sale of so-called “assault weapons.” Although there is a campaign underway lately to rewrite history and pretend that the assault weapons ban of the 1990s was effective in preventing shootings, its failure has been statistically demonstrated, and it was universally acknowledged at the time Congress allowed it to expire. Moreover, gun violence has rapidly declined in the time since.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/congress-did-something-about-gun-sales-and-its-helping