the mentally ill are actually the least violent among us. We do need mental health screening, but I don't believe stricter background checks will work for two reasons.
if nothing is in the background that shows you are a prohibited person, you pass.
Two, criminals don't go to gun stores or gun shows. That was well known even before NICS.
I think the current moderate controls is the best possible. If bans worked, Brazil, Russia, Costa Rica would not be what they are. Venezuela had door to door confiscations, and they still have the second highest murder rate.
Sensible is a weasel term, it doesn't have any meaning. I think parts of current law is sensible, parts are not. Putting a SBR like an M6 Scout in the same category as a machine gun or mortar is not sensible. That is absurd as putting pot in schedule one with heroin. I'm for amending the current five or six federal gun control laws to be sensible, but not adding new ones. I'm for fixing flaws in NICS without infringing on anyone's rights like the VA adding names to the no buy list with no due process as outlined in the Gun Control Act.
Having the law is one thing. Working as advertised is entirely different. Once the "sensible" gun laws don't work as advertised, the prohibitionists will lie about unregulated guns and demand more. When the complete ban happens and nothing happens at best, or get worse, they will be "good thing we banned guns or it would have been worse." Like I said, it is a culture war, has nothing to do with saving lives.