The check system that is currently in place, is that when you buy ANY gun from a dealer, which includes most used guns and ALL new guns, you fill out a questionairre that askes you questions about things like drug addiction, mental health, and general criminal history. The dealer fills out the information, and calls a hotline, and checks you against a federal database to ensure that you haven't been convicted of a felony or been declared mentally insane. They ask if you are purchasing a handgun or a long gun. they do not ask for model or serial number. They reply with a yes or a no. If it's a yes, the purchase is approved. If it's no, you will have to do some questioning and appeals to find out why. (The vast majority of the time, it's a mistake, someone with information similar to yours with a criminal history. Criminals don't submit to background checks when they know they will fail.) The dealer retains the gun model and serial number information on his copy of the form and files it.
In theory, this protects the buyer's privacy. If the government doesn't get the model and serial number when they get the phone call for the check, they don't have a way to construct a database of all guns and their owners. The problem is, the government (The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives,) can come in and look at the dealer's records anytime they want to, unannounced, without a warrant. So, the government still does have a way to check the records.
The law they are currently debating, is whether or not ALL gun trasactions must go through a dealer. Right now, I can sell a gun to my friend with no paperwork. I can place an online ad and sell to someone (face-to-face, not through the mail, not over state lines,) with no paperwork. At a gun show, you can sell a gun to anyone you want to. The media is trying to convince people that gun shows are just these places where anyone can walk in and buy anything they want to from anyone else with no paperwork, and it's not true at all.
