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Thousands escape firearms checks
Josey1
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Thousands escape firearms checks
Sales made before FBI was able to do background inquries
By Dan Eggen / Washington Post
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WASHINGTON -- Nearly 3,000 domestic abusers bought firearms between 1998 and 2001, despite laws designed to prevent such purchases, because the FBI was unable to complete criminal background checks before the sales went through, according to a congressional study.
The General Accounting Office, in a draft report obtained by the Washington Post, found that federal authorities have had to retrieve guns from those convicts and more than 8,000 others because they had been wrongly allowed to buy the weapons.
While most of the purchasers were felons, more than a quarter of the cases involved people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses whose criminal pasts were difficult for authorities to assess in determining whether to approve gun purchases. Usually this occurred because of haphazard record-keeping and other problems, according to the study.
The large number of domestic abusers who were able to buy weapons underscores a chronic problem with the background check system implemented under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and increases the risk that violent spouses might take advantage of the loophole, according to the GAO study and victim advocacy groups.
"The weapon can be used in a homicide or to terrorize battered women and their children," said Lynn Rosenthal, executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. "These cases are falling through the cracks."
Nearly 10 percent of the nation's 15,000 annual homicides involve the killing of a spouse or partner. Almost all victims are women, and most are killed with a firearm, according to federal statistics.
The study, which was requested by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is likely to play a role in the debate on Capitol Hill over proposals to conduct background checks at gun shows.
The GAO study argues that federal authorities, who are limited to a three-day check before a purchase goes through, should be allowed as much as 30 days to research questionable cases before a sale is approved. Some members of Congress have recommended shrinking the background check time to 24 hours in some cases.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said the group could not comment on the GAO report until it has had a chance to review it.
The NRA has consistently opposed longer background check times and is fighting efforts to require background checks at gun shows.
http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0206/26/a05-523965.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
Sales made before FBI was able to do background inquries
By Dan Eggen / Washington Post
Comment on this story
Send this story to a friend
Get Home Delivery
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 3,000 domestic abusers bought firearms between 1998 and 2001, despite laws designed to prevent such purchases, because the FBI was unable to complete criminal background checks before the sales went through, according to a congressional study.
The General Accounting Office, in a draft report obtained by the Washington Post, found that federal authorities have had to retrieve guns from those convicts and more than 8,000 others because they had been wrongly allowed to buy the weapons.
While most of the purchasers were felons, more than a quarter of the cases involved people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses whose criminal pasts were difficult for authorities to assess in determining whether to approve gun purchases. Usually this occurred because of haphazard record-keeping and other problems, according to the study.
The large number of domestic abusers who were able to buy weapons underscores a chronic problem with the background check system implemented under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and increases the risk that violent spouses might take advantage of the loophole, according to the GAO study and victim advocacy groups.
"The weapon can be used in a homicide or to terrorize battered women and their children," said Lynn Rosenthal, executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. "These cases are falling through the cracks."
Nearly 10 percent of the nation's 15,000 annual homicides involve the killing of a spouse or partner. Almost all victims are women, and most are killed with a firearm, according to federal statistics.
The study, which was requested by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is likely to play a role in the debate on Capitol Hill over proposals to conduct background checks at gun shows.
The GAO study argues that federal authorities, who are limited to a three-day check before a purchase goes through, should be allowed as much as 30 days to research questionable cases before a sale is approved. Some members of Congress have recommended shrinking the background check time to 24 hours in some cases.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said the group could not comment on the GAO report until it has had a chance to review it.
The NRA has consistently opposed longer background check times and is fighting efforts to require background checks at gun shows.
http://www.detnews.com/2002/nation/0206/26/a05-523965.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