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Gun Control Group Unloads on Rep. John Dingell
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Gun Control Group Unloads on Rep. John Dingell
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
July 26, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The dean of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat John Dingell, is being targeted for defeat by one of America's most prominent gun control groups, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Brady Campaign has launched a website to criticize what it calls Dingell's "dismal record" on "gun violence protection." Dingell, who has represented Michigan in Congress for nearly 47 years, is the first to be named to the Brady Campaign's "Dangerous Dozen" list of congressional candidates in this year's elections. Other names will follow.
"John Dingell is trying to run away from his long and unfortunate history of opposing common-sense gun laws," said Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign. "This Web site will ensure that the public knows the truth. John Dingell has repeatedly opposed virtually every effort to strengthen our nation's gun laws."
Barnes pointed out that Dingell voted against the Brady Bill, which required a waiting period for gun purchases. "He vehemently opposed the inclusion of the Assault Weapons Ban in the 1994 Crime Bill and he actually voted to repeal the Assault Weapons Ban in 1996," Barnes said.
Dingell faces an August primary election challenge in a redrawn congressional district against Democrat Lynn Rivers.
There was no official comment from Dingell's office Thursday, but the Michigan chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) said the Brady Campaign's charges against Dingell "ring hallow."
"As a former prosecutor in Wayne County (Detroit), John Dingell knows we need tough laws to keep our streets safe and our families secure," said Michigan FOP executive director John Buczek. "He has worked for tougher penalties for criminals who commit crimes with guns and to require immediate criminal background checks of anyone attempting to purchase a gun."
Dingell, according to the Almanac of American Politics, did vote in favor of the 1994 Crime Bill and supported legislation requiring a 24-hour background check on gun purchases. The House Judiciary Committee this week also approved a Dingell sponsored bill that would strengthen background checks for people buying firearms.
The legislation is aimed at getting more information in the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to Dingell. The system is supposed to identify undesirables and others legally barred from buying a gun. The FBI currently relies on states and other federal agencies to provide criminal, mental health and other records, but many are incomplete and outdated.
The bill sponsored by Dingell and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, (D-N.Y.), would require states and federal agencies to automate their records and add them to the system. It authorizes Congress to spend more than $1.1 billion for states and courts to comply with the law and is being hailed by gun control groups like Americans for Gun Safety and the Michigan chapter of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Khalid Pitts, Michigan director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, however, questions Dingell's motives.
"He does this after finding himself in a primary race with someone who is a gun safety supporter and in a new district," Pitts said. "For victims of gun violence, it's ... too little too late."
While trying to satisfy gun control advocates with his legislation, Dingell says he has not lost sight of gun owners either.
"I want to see to it that an honest citizen doesn't lose his Second Amendment rights because of the fact that the state, local and federal people are so inept that the instant check system does not work," Dingell said.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200207/POL20020726a.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
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
July 26, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The dean of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat John Dingell, is being targeted for defeat by one of America's most prominent gun control groups, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Brady Campaign has launched a website to criticize what it calls Dingell's "dismal record" on "gun violence protection." Dingell, who has represented Michigan in Congress for nearly 47 years, is the first to be named to the Brady Campaign's "Dangerous Dozen" list of congressional candidates in this year's elections. Other names will follow.
"John Dingell is trying to run away from his long and unfortunate history of opposing common-sense gun laws," said Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign. "This Web site will ensure that the public knows the truth. John Dingell has repeatedly opposed virtually every effort to strengthen our nation's gun laws."
Barnes pointed out that Dingell voted against the Brady Bill, which required a waiting period for gun purchases. "He vehemently opposed the inclusion of the Assault Weapons Ban in the 1994 Crime Bill and he actually voted to repeal the Assault Weapons Ban in 1996," Barnes said.
Dingell faces an August primary election challenge in a redrawn congressional district against Democrat Lynn Rivers.
There was no official comment from Dingell's office Thursday, but the Michigan chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) said the Brady Campaign's charges against Dingell "ring hallow."
"As a former prosecutor in Wayne County (Detroit), John Dingell knows we need tough laws to keep our streets safe and our families secure," said Michigan FOP executive director John Buczek. "He has worked for tougher penalties for criminals who commit crimes with guns and to require immediate criminal background checks of anyone attempting to purchase a gun."
Dingell, according to the Almanac of American Politics, did vote in favor of the 1994 Crime Bill and supported legislation requiring a 24-hour background check on gun purchases. The House Judiciary Committee this week also approved a Dingell sponsored bill that would strengthen background checks for people buying firearms.
The legislation is aimed at getting more information in the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to Dingell. The system is supposed to identify undesirables and others legally barred from buying a gun. The FBI currently relies on states and other federal agencies to provide criminal, mental health and other records, but many are incomplete and outdated.
The bill sponsored by Dingell and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, (D-N.Y.), would require states and federal agencies to automate their records and add them to the system. It authorizes Congress to spend more than $1.1 billion for states and courts to comply with the law and is being hailed by gun control groups like Americans for Gun Safety and the Michigan chapter of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Khalid Pitts, Michigan director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, however, questions Dingell's motives.
"He does this after finding himself in a primary race with someone who is a gun safety supporter and in a new district," Pitts said. "For victims of gun violence, it's ... too little too late."
While trying to satisfy gun control advocates with his legislation, Dingell says he has not lost sight of gun owners either.
"I want to see to it that an honest citizen doesn't lose his Second Amendment rights because of the fact that the state, local and federal people are so inept that the instant check system does not work," Dingell said.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200207/POL20020726a.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
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Copyright c 2002 AP Online
Search for more information on this legislation at thomas.loc.gov.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (July 23, 2002 4:06 p.m. EDT) - Peter Troy's history of mental illness made it illegal for him to own the gun that police say he used to spray bullets at a Long Island church, killing the priest and a worshiper.
But the database used by the FBI for background checks is so incomplete that Troy was approved to buy a rifle even though he been committed to a mental institution at least twice.
A bill that would require states and federal agencies to automate their records and add them to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System passed the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday on a 30-2 vote.
The FBI's system is supposed to identify felons, drug addicts, domestic abusers, illegal immigrants, people who were involuntarily committed to a mental institution and others legally barred from having a gun. It relies on states and other federal agencies to provide criminal, mental health and other records, but many are incomplete or outdated.
The bill to improve the system is named "Our Lady of Peace," after the church where Troy opened fire March 12. It authorizes Congress to spend more than $1.1 billion for states and courts to comply with the law.
"If the FBI had access to New York's records, the senseless act of violence at Our Lady of Peace church in my district could have been averted," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., the bill's sponsor.
McCarthy teamed with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a senior member of the House who is often her foe on gun legislation, to help push for the bill's passage.
Dingell is in the midst of a primary campaign against Rep. Lynn Rivers, who has criticized him for voting against gun control and previously serving on the board of the National Rifle Association.
The NRA supports the bill with reservations. The group says the legislation would speed background checks that can delay gun purchases, but it is concerned that there are no penalties for states that don't supply records to the FBI's database.
Most background checks are completed in a few minutes, but some take up to three days as police are supposed to find paper records that have not been entered in the database. After three days, the gun must be sold to a buyer if the check has not been completed.
"I want to see to it that an honest citizen doesn't lose his Second Amendment rights because of the fact that the state, local and federal people are so inept that the instant check system does not work," Dingell said.
Background checks for prospective gun buyers have been required since February 1994 under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. More than 689,000 people have been denied a gun for failing a background check.
But faulty records allowed at least 9,976 prohibited buyers to buy a gun from December 1998 to June 2001, according to a report by Americans for Gun Safety.
"The entire linchpin of our system to keep guns out of the wrong hands is the records in the background check system, and those records are in deplorable shape," said Jim Kessler, policy and research director of Americans for Gun Safety. "This will make a difference."
http://www.nandotimes.com/politics/story/475542p-3800764c.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
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