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Attorney general is ensuring our individual rights
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Attorney general is ensuring our individual rights
c St. Petersburg Times
published August 3, 2002
Re: The NRA poster boy, editorial, July 30.
There is no doubt that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual citizen the right to possess firearms. A poll taken following Attorney General John Ashcroft's affirmation of this right showed that 75 percent of U.S. voters think so, agreeing with Ashcroft. The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution published a carefully documented report in 1982 saying so. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said so recently in the well researched Emerson decision. The 14th Amendment's intent was to specifically guarantee all citizens the right to vote, as well as all other Constitutional rights, including the right to bear arms, which were not to be abridged by any of the states.
Attorney General Ashcroft has not "created new constitutional protections." He has put the Second Amendment where it belongs: on a even keel with the entire Bill of Rights.
The intent to destroy the National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NICS) records was the clear intent of Congress. The system is an "instant check," not a means to create government dossiers on law abiding citizens who exercise their Constitutional right to purchase a firearm.
-- Lee Hanson, Hudson
No illegal registry needed
Re: The NRA poster boy.
If you would take the time to read the Brady law you would see that the attorney general is only following the law as it is written. If the NICS operator finds no information that would prohibit the transferee from possessing a firearm, the personal information is to be deleted immediately. The FBI retains the date and time and FFL (Federal Firearms License) number of the NICS check and the FFL dealer must retain the Form 4473 "yellow sheet" for 20 years. The FBI has three working days to complete the check if needed. If the three days pass without resolution then the dealer may transfer the firearm.
I do these checks all of the time and I always wait for FBI approval no matter how long it takes. If the FBI finds that a transfer has been made to a prohibited person after the three days they need only call the dealer for the personal information. There is no need for the FBI, ATF or FDLE to maintain an illegal registry of firearm owners.
-- Bruce Osborn, Tampa
The NRA's attorney general
Re: The NRA poster boy.
When John Ashcroft lost his re-election bid for his Senate seat, the gun violence prevention community celebrated his defeat and our participation in that defeat. However, his subsequent appointment to attorney general was first thought to be a disaster.
It now appears it's not as bad as we first thought. Utilizing his office as the NRA's attorney general instead of the people's attorney general has generated a good deal of public comment about his shameless support of the gun lobby and the issues involved. We feel in the long run this will turn out to be more of a liability for the NRA than an asset. With the vast majority of Americans still supporting reasonable restrictions on firearms, we feel John Ashcroft will provide the catalyst necessary to harden and even increase support for sensible restrictions on firearms.
The appointment of John Ashcroft to attorney general was an attempt by President Bush to shore up his right wing, but in this case it was to shore up his far-right wing. We tend to think since Ashcroft is so far from mainstream on gun control this can only hurt Bush at re-election time and will further the public's perception that the NRA is a far-right wing organization only interested in its ideology of total individual gun rights at the expense of public safety. This has already started to happen.
Within months of his appointment, our courts have been assaulted by terrorists, felons and others chaffing under firearms restrictions they feel are unconstitutional according to the attorney general, placing him in direct conflict with state attorneys general and with the law created by our high court for the last 60 years. This has not endeared him to the public, law enforcement and our legislatures.
The NRA feels it's now riding high and closer than ever to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that will render all gun control laws unconstitutional. With John Ashcroft exposing the real goal of the NRA, absolute gun rights, we think public opinion will solidify to stop this insanity.
-- Arthur C. Hayhoe, executive director, Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Inc., Wesley Chapel
http://sptimes.com/2002/08/03/Opinion/Attorney_general_is_e.shtml
"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
c St. Petersburg Times
published August 3, 2002
Re: The NRA poster boy, editorial, July 30.
There is no doubt that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual citizen the right to possess firearms. A poll taken following Attorney General John Ashcroft's affirmation of this right showed that 75 percent of U.S. voters think so, agreeing with Ashcroft. The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution published a carefully documented report in 1982 saying so. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said so recently in the well researched Emerson decision. The 14th Amendment's intent was to specifically guarantee all citizens the right to vote, as well as all other Constitutional rights, including the right to bear arms, which were not to be abridged by any of the states.
Attorney General Ashcroft has not "created new constitutional protections." He has put the Second Amendment where it belongs: on a even keel with the entire Bill of Rights.
The intent to destroy the National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NICS) records was the clear intent of Congress. The system is an "instant check," not a means to create government dossiers on law abiding citizens who exercise their Constitutional right to purchase a firearm.
-- Lee Hanson, Hudson
No illegal registry needed
Re: The NRA poster boy.
If you would take the time to read the Brady law you would see that the attorney general is only following the law as it is written. If the NICS operator finds no information that would prohibit the transferee from possessing a firearm, the personal information is to be deleted immediately. The FBI retains the date and time and FFL (Federal Firearms License) number of the NICS check and the FFL dealer must retain the Form 4473 "yellow sheet" for 20 years. The FBI has three working days to complete the check if needed. If the three days pass without resolution then the dealer may transfer the firearm.
I do these checks all of the time and I always wait for FBI approval no matter how long it takes. If the FBI finds that a transfer has been made to a prohibited person after the three days they need only call the dealer for the personal information. There is no need for the FBI, ATF or FDLE to maintain an illegal registry of firearm owners.
-- Bruce Osborn, Tampa
The NRA's attorney general
Re: The NRA poster boy.
When John Ashcroft lost his re-election bid for his Senate seat, the gun violence prevention community celebrated his defeat and our participation in that defeat. However, his subsequent appointment to attorney general was first thought to be a disaster.
It now appears it's not as bad as we first thought. Utilizing his office as the NRA's attorney general instead of the people's attorney general has generated a good deal of public comment about his shameless support of the gun lobby and the issues involved. We feel in the long run this will turn out to be more of a liability for the NRA than an asset. With the vast majority of Americans still supporting reasonable restrictions on firearms, we feel John Ashcroft will provide the catalyst necessary to harden and even increase support for sensible restrictions on firearms.
The appointment of John Ashcroft to attorney general was an attempt by President Bush to shore up his right wing, but in this case it was to shore up his far-right wing. We tend to think since Ashcroft is so far from mainstream on gun control this can only hurt Bush at re-election time and will further the public's perception that the NRA is a far-right wing organization only interested in its ideology of total individual gun rights at the expense of public safety. This has already started to happen.
Within months of his appointment, our courts have been assaulted by terrorists, felons and others chaffing under firearms restrictions they feel are unconstitutional according to the attorney general, placing him in direct conflict with state attorneys general and with the law created by our high court for the last 60 years. This has not endeared him to the public, law enforcement and our legislatures.
The NRA feels it's now riding high and closer than ever to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that will render all gun control laws unconstitutional. With John Ashcroft exposing the real goal of the NRA, absolute gun rights, we think public opinion will solidify to stop this insanity.
-- Arthur C. Hayhoe, executive director, Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Inc., Wesley Chapel
http://sptimes.com/2002/08/03/Opinion/Attorney_general_is_e.shtml
"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