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GAO Raps Ashcroft's Gun Check Plan
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
GAO Raps Ashcroft's Gun Check Plan
By DAVID HO
Associated Press Writer
July 23, 2002, 6:39 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department proposal to purge background-check records of gun buyers after one day would hinder some law enforcement investigations and could allow criminals to obtain and keep weapons, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
Destroying the records of approved sales would make it harder for police to track down and retrieve weapons from criminals who were mistakenly allowed to buy guns, said Laurie Ekstrand, author of the General Accounting Office study of the proposal.
"There would still be some people who get guns and shouldn't have," Ekstrand said. She said the proposal would also limit the ability of investigators to discover if specific individuals banned from buying guns had made purchases.
The Justice Department, in a letter responding to the GAO report, said it is considering solutions for those potential problems, including improving state criminal record keeping systems and retaining firearm dealer identification numbers to track purchases.
Gun purchase files in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are now kept for 90 days so the FBI can look for fraudulent transactions or mistaken approvals. The system, which is called NICS, electronically checks law enforcement records while gun buyers are waiting to make purchases. Felons, drug users, and people subject to domestic violence restraining orders are among those prohibited from buying guns.
Separately on Tuesday, a bill that would require states and federal agencies to automate their records and add them to the system passed the House Judiciary Committee.
Gun owner groups say keeping the records invades privacy; gun control advocates say more time for auditing is needed to ensure that guns are not be sold to criminals.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said last year that he wanted to balance those concerns by reducing the time records are held to the next business day after a purchase. That proposal has passed administrative hurdles and is ready to go, Ekstrand said.
"Ashcroft could put it in effect any time," she said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said the proposal is still under consideration.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asked Ashcroft in December to delay the new rule to review the role of gun background checks in the context of the war on terrorism.
"In a post 9-11 world, the Justice Department's NICS plan is a step in exactly the wrong direction," Schumer said Tuesday. "To put ideological agendas ahead of people's safety is the wrong way to govern."
Gun control advocates agreed.
The GAO report proves that Ashcroft's proposal "undermines the effectiveness of the system" said Amy Stilwell, spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, said the Justice Department proposal is a good idea and there is no reason for law enforcement to maintain records on lawful Americans based on their commercial purchases. He said the GAO's concerns are unfounded.
"To suggest that law enforcement doesn't have the ability to investigate criminals who obtain guns through NICS is false," Cox said.
* __
On the Net:
National Instant Criminal Background Check System: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics.htm
Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov
National Rifle Association: http://www.nra.org
Brady Campaign: http://www.bradycampaign.org
Copyright c 2002, The Associated Press http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-gun-checks-gao0723jul23.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By DAVID HO
Associated Press Writer
July 23, 2002, 6:39 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department proposal to purge background-check records of gun buyers after one day would hinder some law enforcement investigations and could allow criminals to obtain and keep weapons, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
Destroying the records of approved sales would make it harder for police to track down and retrieve weapons from criminals who were mistakenly allowed to buy guns, said Laurie Ekstrand, author of the General Accounting Office study of the proposal.
"There would still be some people who get guns and shouldn't have," Ekstrand said. She said the proposal would also limit the ability of investigators to discover if specific individuals banned from buying guns had made purchases.
The Justice Department, in a letter responding to the GAO report, said it is considering solutions for those potential problems, including improving state criminal record keeping systems and retaining firearm dealer identification numbers to track purchases.
Gun purchase files in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are now kept for 90 days so the FBI can look for fraudulent transactions or mistaken approvals. The system, which is called NICS, electronically checks law enforcement records while gun buyers are waiting to make purchases. Felons, drug users, and people subject to domestic violence restraining orders are among those prohibited from buying guns.
Separately on Tuesday, a bill that would require states and federal agencies to automate their records and add them to the system passed the House Judiciary Committee.
Gun owner groups say keeping the records invades privacy; gun control advocates say more time for auditing is needed to ensure that guns are not be sold to criminals.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said last year that he wanted to balance those concerns by reducing the time records are held to the next business day after a purchase. That proposal has passed administrative hurdles and is ready to go, Ekstrand said.
"Ashcroft could put it in effect any time," she said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said the proposal is still under consideration.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asked Ashcroft in December to delay the new rule to review the role of gun background checks in the context of the war on terrorism.
"In a post 9-11 world, the Justice Department's NICS plan is a step in exactly the wrong direction," Schumer said Tuesday. "To put ideological agendas ahead of people's safety is the wrong way to govern."
Gun control advocates agreed.
The GAO report proves that Ashcroft's proposal "undermines the effectiveness of the system" said Amy Stilwell, spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, said the Justice Department proposal is a good idea and there is no reason for law enforcement to maintain records on lawful Americans based on their commercial purchases. He said the GAO's concerns are unfounded.
"To suggest that law enforcement doesn't have the ability to investigate criminals who obtain guns through NICS is false," Cox said.
* __
On the Net:
National Instant Criminal Background Check System: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics.htm
Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov
National Rifle Association: http://www.nra.org
Brady Campaign: http://www.bradycampaign.org
Copyright c 2002, The Associated Press http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-gun-checks-gao0723jul23.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878