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The NRA poster boy (Anti-Ashcroft Rhetoric)
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
The NRA poster boy
Attorney General John Ashcroft wants information that would keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, fugitives and illegal aliens purged after a day.
c St. Petersburg Times
published July 30, 2002
Attorney General John Ashcroft's views are so extreme on gun control laws that he finds himself in the position of shielding gun-toting felons and illegal aliens. One would think such a stand would embarrass Ashcroft, who is supposedly in the midst of fighting terrorism inside our borders. Yet Ashcroft's zeal never wavers as he protects his favorite special interest, the gun lobby.
His latest outrageous behavior comes in the debate over the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, called NICS. It works this way: When someone buys a gun, the FBI or state law enforcement officials do a background check to keep firearms out of the hands of convicted felons, fugitives and illegal aliens. The law allows those records to be retained for 90 days, after which they must be destroyed. Ashcroft wants the records purged after a single day.
Those 90 days are important to law enforcement officials, who often discover after the fact that a gun was illegally purchased. They can then use NICS records to find the buyer and retrieve the gun. In fact, of the 235 illegal gun sales in a recent six-month period, all but 7 took longer than a day to be noticed, according to a new study by the General Accounting Office.
Ashcroft says using the records for criminal investigations is illegal, claiming it is an invasion of gun owners' privacy. This isn't the only time the attorney general has given the law his own interpretation to advance the gun industry's agenda.
When the FBI began rounding up foreign residents after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the agency wanted to use NICS records to determine if those suspects had purchased guns, possibly illegally. Ashcroft said no and in December testified to U.S. Senate that "Congress specifically outlaws and bans . . . the use of approved purchase records for weapons checks on possible terrorists or anyone else."
Not exactly. Recently, a Justice Department memo dated two months prior to his testimony surfaced. "We see nothing in the NICS regulations that prohibits the FBI from deriving additional benefits from checking audit log records" as part of their terrorism investigation, the memo stated.
Ashcroft has been only too willing to trample on the rights of many Americans to achieve his often narrow agenda. The exception has been gun manufacturers, dealers and owners. For them, he has created new constitutional protections.
In arguing a gun case in May before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ashcroft's Justice Department revealed that it would change decades of federal policy and reinterpret the Second Amendment to give individuals the constitutional right to own firearms. Until then, the Justice Department had contended that the Second Amendment confers the right to bear arms only on the "well regulated militia" that is its subject.
No wonder Ashcroft is the poster boy, literally, of the National Rifle Association, which put him on the cover of its magazine. Meanwhile, 30,000 Americans a year are killed by guns, and attorneys for John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban, have latched onto Ashcroft's pronouncements to defend their client's actions.
It is becoming increasingly clear that John Ashcroft is far outside the American mainstream when it comes to reasonable gun control.
http://sptimes.com/2002/07/30/Opinion/The_NRA_poster_boy.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
Attorney General John Ashcroft wants information that would keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, fugitives and illegal aliens purged after a day.
c St. Petersburg Times
published July 30, 2002
Attorney General John Ashcroft's views are so extreme on gun control laws that he finds himself in the position of shielding gun-toting felons and illegal aliens. One would think such a stand would embarrass Ashcroft, who is supposedly in the midst of fighting terrorism inside our borders. Yet Ashcroft's zeal never wavers as he protects his favorite special interest, the gun lobby.
His latest outrageous behavior comes in the debate over the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, called NICS. It works this way: When someone buys a gun, the FBI or state law enforcement officials do a background check to keep firearms out of the hands of convicted felons, fugitives and illegal aliens. The law allows those records to be retained for 90 days, after which they must be destroyed. Ashcroft wants the records purged after a single day.
Those 90 days are important to law enforcement officials, who often discover after the fact that a gun was illegally purchased. They can then use NICS records to find the buyer and retrieve the gun. In fact, of the 235 illegal gun sales in a recent six-month period, all but 7 took longer than a day to be noticed, according to a new study by the General Accounting Office.
Ashcroft says using the records for criminal investigations is illegal, claiming it is an invasion of gun owners' privacy. This isn't the only time the attorney general has given the law his own interpretation to advance the gun industry's agenda.
When the FBI began rounding up foreign residents after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the agency wanted to use NICS records to determine if those suspects had purchased guns, possibly illegally. Ashcroft said no and in December testified to U.S. Senate that "Congress specifically outlaws and bans . . . the use of approved purchase records for weapons checks on possible terrorists or anyone else."
Not exactly. Recently, a Justice Department memo dated two months prior to his testimony surfaced. "We see nothing in the NICS regulations that prohibits the FBI from deriving additional benefits from checking audit log records" as part of their terrorism investigation, the memo stated.
Ashcroft has been only too willing to trample on the rights of many Americans to achieve his often narrow agenda. The exception has been gun manufacturers, dealers and owners. For them, he has created new constitutional protections.
In arguing a gun case in May before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ashcroft's Justice Department revealed that it would change decades of federal policy and reinterpret the Second Amendment to give individuals the constitutional right to own firearms. Until then, the Justice Department had contended that the Second Amendment confers the right to bear arms only on the "well regulated militia" that is its subject.
No wonder Ashcroft is the poster boy, literally, of the National Rifle Association, which put him on the cover of its magazine. Meanwhile, 30,000 Americans a year are killed by guns, and attorneys for John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban, have latched onto Ashcroft's pronouncements to defend their client's actions.
It is becoming increasingly clear that John Ashcroft is far outside the American mainstream when it comes to reasonable gun control.
http://sptimes.com/2002/07/30/Opinion/The_NRA_poster_boy.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
Comments
Owners are Terrorists
William Lolli
CalNRA Contributing Editor
July 29, 2002
According to a report filed by Newsday.com [ http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny usashc262799324jul26.story?coll=ny%2Dnews%2Dprint ], Senators Kennedy and Schumer believe that American gun owners are terrorists.
Attorney General John Ashcroft was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the topic of FBI investigations, and AG Ashcroft was pointing out the limitations of the Brady Law.
"You're saying that they [the gun purchase records] cannot be used to investigate whether the terrorists violated the gun laws? Is that what you're telling us?" Kennedy said.
"He [Ashcroft] has a total blind spot," Schumer said yesterday after Ashcroft's testimony. "Every other place he wants to go after terrorists. When it comes to looking at whether they bought guns, he is saying, 'Oh, no, their right to privacy is paramount.' "
If by "their privacy" Senator Schumer refers to American gun owners, then he must also be classifying American gun owners as terrorists.
To gun owners, this is not news. What is news, however, is the desire of these Senators with the full force of government to wish the law enforcement branch to classify and make suspect under the Patriot Act, American gun owners-as terrorists!
Is there any doubt in anyone's mind right now what the response would be from, say, Janet Reno if she were sitting in the AG chair?
Needless to say, it is of paramount importance that every freedom-loving gun-owner in America take note that the difference between you as an American sportsman, "law-abiding" gun owner and a murderous, blood-thirsty terrorist is whoever is sitting in the AG's chair!
http://www.calnra.org/Lolli/wl41.html
"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
Massachusetts "Guns for Criminals" Action Alert
7/30/2002
It is essential that all gun violence prevention advocates in Massachusetts call their State Senators to prevent House 5102, the "Guns for Criminals" bill, from becoming law. The Senate Minority Leader is seeking to discharge the bill from the Senate Ways and Means Committee. If successfully discharged, the bill would move to the Senate floor, and move one step closer to becoming law.
Passage of this bill would be a major step backward from our toughest-in-the-nation gun control law. Your voice is critical if we want to stop the "Guns for Criminals" bill from becoming law.
To reach your Massachusetts State Senator, please call (617) 722- 2000.
For more information, call Jude Pearson at Stop Handgun Violence at (617) 243-8124.
Talking Points on H5102: The "Guns for Criminals" Bill
H5102 is a significant step backward from a key provision that was part of the Gun Control Act of 1998, known nationally as the toughest gun control law in America. The 1998 law established a lifetime ban on gun ownership for any person who has been convicted of a violent crime. H5102 weakens the prohibitions affecting violent criminals for both FID cards and Licenses to Carry (LTC's):
H5102 would restore access to FID cards for certain convicted violent criminals.
FID cards allow a person to purchase and possess non-large capacity rifles and shotguns. The bill would exempt from the definition of "violent crime" any violent misdemeanor, except for domestic assault on a family or household member. The restoration of FID eligibility for those convicted of a violent misdemeanor would come seven years after the completion of the offender's sentence, probation, or parole, whichever is later. Issuance of such a license would be non-discretionary by a local police chief - a chief would be obligated to give a license to a person who passes the background check, regardless of the circumstances of the applicant's violent misdemeanor conviction. Conviction for two violent misdemeanors would continue to result in permanent disqualification.
H5102 loosens to an even greater extent the criteria for getting a Class A or B License to Carry (LTC).
A Class A LTC allows an individual to purchase and possess any legal gun, and to carry a concealed firearm (handgun) on his or her person. A Class B LTC allows an individual to purchase and possess a firearm, but not carry it in a concealed fashion, and to purchase and possess (but not carry) a large capacity rifle or shotgun.
Under current law a conviction for any of the following is a lifetime disqualifier for LTC eligibility: A felony; a misdemeanor that is punishable by imprisonment for more than two years; a violent crime; any drug crime; or any firearm offense. H5102 would restore eligibility for those convicted of: non-violent felonies; violent misdemeanors other than domestic assault on a family or household member; misdemeanors that are punishable by imprisonment for more than two years, misdemeanor drug crimes, and misdemeanor firearms offenses. As with FID Cards, eligibility would come seven years after the completion of the offender's sentence, probation, or parole, whichever is later. Conviction for two violent misdemeanors would continue to result in permanent disqualification.
H5012 would potentially allow thousands of convicted domestic abusers to become eligible for gun licenses.
H5102 creates a new crime known as misdemeanor assault and battery against a family or household member. However, records kept by the Criminal History Systems Board will have all past convictions listed simply as assault and battery, without distinguishing between those that did or did not involve domestic violence. As assault and battery would no longer serve as a lifetime barrier to gun ownership, this change would potentially allow thousands of convicted domestic abusers to become eligible for a gun license.
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,552981,00.html
"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
July 29, 2002
Politically, the timing was suspect, but that doesn't diminish the value of a gun-safety bill steered through a House committee last week by U.S. Rep. John Dingell.
New district lines engineered by Republicans have thrown the Dearborn Democrat -- dean of the Congress with 47 years of service -- into an Aug. 6 primary against Rep. Lynn Rivers, D-Ann Arbor. Gun control is an issue on which Rivers has attacked Dingell, a former board member of the National Rifle Association.
But even Rivers signed on to cosponsor a bill authored by Dingell and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York, who was elected to Congress as a gun-control candidate after her husband was shot to death on the Long Island Railroad.
The Dingell-McCarthy bill would appropriate $1.1 billion for states and courts to computerize their criminal records and add them to the FBI's national system for running instant background checks on gun buyers. Most of the checks are instant, but some require days to complete because of paper records that must be searched by hand; federal law says a firearm transaction cannot be blocked for more than three days because of a record check.
A report by Americans for Gun Safety found that almost 10,000 people who should have been barred from gun ownership were able to buy firearms during a recent 3 1/2-year period because of faulty record checks.
The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill by a 30-2 vote. Even the NRA hailed it as "a positive and productive measure" that will mean fewer impediments for law-abiding gun buyers. The bill may not become law before the Dingell-Rivers contest is decided Aug. 6, but -- with so much accord on its merit -- there's no reason it can't be on the books by year's end.
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/eguns29_20020729.htm
"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
Attorney General Ashcroft Misled Congress and the American People on Legality of Checking Terrorist Gun Purchase Records
Washington, DC-Attorney General John Ashcroft misled Congress and the American public when he repeatedly stated that the Justice Department was legally prohibited from checking gun purchase records in connection with the post-9/11 terrorism investigation to determine if potential terrorists had purchased firearms, a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report reveals. The Justice Department's refusal to review the records received widespread press attention when it was revealed by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) in December 2001.
The report, Gun Control: Potential Effects of Next-Day Destruction of NICS Background Check Records, reveals for the first time the existence of an October 1, 2001 memorandum prepared by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). [The VPC has obtained a full copy of the memo.] The memo concludes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has the legal authority to check approved gun purchase records to ascertain whether prohibited persons bought guns in connection with the post-9/11 terrorism investigation. The memorandum flatly contradicts Attorney General Ashcroft's insistence that the Justice Department was legally prohibited from checking approved gun purchase records in connection with the terrorism investigation.
"The OLC memorandum is the smoking gun proving that Ashcroft grossly misled Congress and the American people," states Mathew Nosanchuk, VPC litigation director and legislative counsel. "Attorney General Ashcroft described the Department's legal authority with the same accuracy that WorldCom reported its profits."
Despite withering public and congressional criticism of the Justice Department's position, the Department never disclosed the existence of the OLC memorandum. The VPC has identified no less than eight separate statements to the news media and in congressional testimony by Justice Department officials asserting in unequivocal terms that the Department lacked the legal authority to do precisely what the October 2001 OLC memo said was legal.
The report, which examines the potential impact of the Ashcroft Justice Department's proposal to require the destruction of approved gun purchase records within 24 hours, concludes that the destruction of records would have dire consequences for public safety. Another key finding is that retained records were used to initiate firearms retrieval actions, which take place when a felon, fugitive, domestic abuser, or other prohibited person clears a background check and law enforcement subsequently finds out they are prohibited. In an astonishing 97 percent of retrieval cases that the GAO studied over a six-month period, law enforcement would not have been able to retrieve an illegally purchased firearm from a prohibited person under the shortened retention period proposed by the Attorney General.
Adds Nosanchuk, "The GAO report should put the final nail in the coffin of the Ashcroft Justice Department's records-destruction proposal. The report leaves no doubt that when it comes to enforcing the gun laws Attorney General Ashcroft is not guided by facts, law, or public safety, but by blind allegiance to the gun lobby."
http://www.vpc.org/press/0207gao.htm
"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 Nicholas M. Horrock
UPI Chief White House Correspondent
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 7/30/2002 9:04 PM
View printer-friendly version
WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced legislation Tuesday to close major gaps in the federal firearms background check system that in a 30-month period allowed some 10,000 felons and others prohibited from gun ownership to obtain weapons.
"This legislation fixes a huge hole in our system," McCain said in a statement, "a hole that delays legitimate firearms purchases and allows criminals and other prohibited buyers to obtain guns."
McCain said the hole is the "faulty records of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)."
He cited a report issued by the Americans for Gun Safety in January that showed "millions of records are missing from NICS' database." The study showed that over a 30-month period, 10,000 criminals and others obtained a license without a full background check "because the records couldn't be checked properly within the three days allowed by federal law."
The bill was sponsored by McCain, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Craig joked at a news conference that it was the "odd quad," referring to the fact that the sponsors came together on this legislation despite widely differing views on gun control.
Gun control advocates applauded the bill. The Americans for Gun Safety Foundation said the measure "promises to be the first major gun safety action to be taken by this Congress." The AGS noted that a companion bill passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 30-2 last week.
AGS President Jonathan Cowan applauded the bipartisan support for the bill. He said it "proves" senators with "opposing views in the gun debate" can come together in support of an "effective gun safety measure."
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, credited Craig with getting fixes in the law that protected legitimate gun owners. He noted that the legislation as introduced effectively "eliminates" the future prospect of a gun tax to pay for the NICS system. He said it has a more "concise definition of mental health records" and "enhanced" privacy protections to protect health records that are provided to the FBI.
Arulanandam complained however that "after a decade and one-third of billion dollars," NICS "has yet to deliver" on an instant record check.
McCain said that "72 percent of background checks are approved and completed within minutes, but 5 percent take days to complete for one reason only -- faulty records force law enforcement into time consuming searches to locate final disposition records for felony and domestic violence convictions."
The bill will require that federal agencies, such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Veterans Administration to provide NICS with the records all those disqualified from purchasing a firearm. For INS it would mean sending millions of records of those here on tourist visas, student and all other non-immigrant visas to NICS. But this requirement comes at a time that the INS record keeping system is under criticism. There an estimated 4.5 million undocumented aliens in the United States who have either overstayed visas or entered the country illegally and one of the tasks of President George W. Bush's $38 billion homeland security plan is to integrate INS with other federal agencies.
Another major problem since the federal government began checking gun registrations 10 years ago was the condition of state records.
"For felony records," McCain said, "the typical state has automated only 58 percent of its felony conviction records. The FBI estimates that out of 39 felony conviction records, 16 million of them lack final disposition." This means, aides said, that the others have to be checked by hand in court houses and this is often not completed before the deadline to issue the registration has been reached.
McCain said mental health records are in a more deplorable condition. Gun registration checks are designed to discover people who would be a danger to themselves or to others with a firearm. McCain said that 33 states keep no mental health disqualifying records and that no state "supplies mental health disqualifying records to NICS." He said the General Accounting Office estimated that there are 2.7 million mental health records -- not all of which would disqualify someone to register a gun -- that should be in NICS database but that only 100,000 are available and nearly of those came from federal Veterans Administration Hospitals.
There are also major gaps in drug abuse records and domestic violence records. "On the issue of domestic violence," McCain said, "twenty states lack a database for either domestic violence misdemeanants or temporary restraining orders or both." He said the Justice Department estimates that there are nearly two million restraining order records missing from the NICS database. Restraining orders are court orders that prohibit one party in a domestic dispute from approaching or threatening the other. Studies of case after case of domestic violence that included firearms attacks found that a gun was purchased after a judge granted the restraining order.
McCain's bill provides for $250 million a year for three years to help states improve background check systems and automate systems.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020730-074921-8126r
Copyright c 2002 United Press International
"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
Ashcroft, Democrats place loyalty to lobbies over our security
July 26 - Call me naive, but I thought that since Sept. 11, Washington had gotten its priorities straight when it comes to terrorism. Sure, there are plenty of differences, but the money is flowing and the partisanship muted. For all of the excesses and normal policy failures, most politicians have tried to focus on Job One: Keeping you and me from getting blown up.
BUT THERE ARE a couple of big exceptions, and I have to say, they make me furious. The first is Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has now been revealed to be - how to put this gently? - a liar on an issue directly related to preventing future acts of terrorism. The other example: Democrats in Congress who want to keep the new Department of Homeland Security from being accountable for its performance. President Bush has threatened to veto their bill for the way it approaches civil service, and he's right.
Ashcroft first. A front-page story in The New York Times on July 24 took note of the fact that even many conservatives are now worried that the attorney general is pushing policies that are too invasive of privacy. Maybe so, but that is not my concern here. The TIPS program announced by Ashcroft may be over the top (and we should all work hard to make sure it isn't), but at least the motive is right. On Sept. 12, the president told Ashcroft to do whatever it took, within legal bounds, to make sure terrorists didn't strike again. The attorney general is working, however awkwardly, toward that end.
Or so we thought. Last December, the FBI and Ashcroft got into a spat. The FBI wanted to check its records to see if any of the 1,200 people detained after Sept. 11 had bought guns. This was highly relevant, even critical information. Just prior to Sept. 11, a Michigan jury had convicted several Arab men of buying guns legally in the United States and shipping them to the Middle East for use by terrorists. Whatever you think of gun control, we don't want terrorists using our laws to arm themselves, right?
Not in Ashcroft's mind. He said on Dec. 6 that his hands were tied. The law "outlaws and bans" the use of the National Instant Check System in criminal investigations, he said. The Brady Law background checks can only be reviewed for "maintenance," he said. At the time, I thought this was a bogus interpretation and wrote that Ashcroft was putting the interests of the National Rifle Association above security against terrorism. But the AG had a fig leaf: his claim of a finding from his own Justice Department that this was the law, and he had to obey it.
On July 23, we learned this was, ahem, a crock. The General Accounting Office reported that Ashcroft's own Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel had on Oct. 1 issued an opinion allowing the background checks to be used for "additional purposes" beyond maintenance. There can be no more important "additional purposes" than finding terrorists, especially since exactly none of those detained have been charged so far with committing acts of terrorism. In other words, evidence is lacking, and one important way to get that evidence is being blocked by none other than the attorney general of the United States. Some patriot.
To my mind, Ashcroft should be forced to resign over this. But of course he won't be. The president and much of Congress are in bed with the NRA, too.
The Democrats, meanwhile, are in bed with another interest group - the civil service unions. Bush wants the new department of homeland security to be made accountable, so that if, say, a Customs agent got drunk and let in a terrorist, he could be fired for it. At present, he would not be. In case you hadn't noticed, firing an incompetent federal employee is the impossible dream. It takes months, even years, and is almost a full-time job for the supervisor.
The Democrats say that it isn't fair to strip all of the employees being involuntarily transferred to the new department of civil service protections. They're right that some minimal job security - and protection for whistleblowers - should be in the final bill. Other departments, including defense and CIA, should not have different job performance standards. But if the whole government must live by the same rules, this is a perfect opportunity to transform the job security standards for everyone in the federal service. The number of employees currently exempted (in other words, whom you can fire because they are in sensitive jobs) is ridiculously low. That must be changed across the board.
This effort to make the government more accountable has been derided by Democrats as union-busting. That may be part of the motive, but the answer is not to scratch and kick on behalf of the status quo; it's to fashion a compromise that shows Democrats believe accountability for performance in protecting our lives (yes, those are the stakes) is more important than maintaining some endless regimen of due process protections. National security should trump job security.
Both using the gun background check system to better catch terrorists and reforming the civil service to better catch terrorists seem like no-brainers. It's a sign of the return to business as usual in Washington that they aren't.
c 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/786378.asp
"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