You've made absolutely no effort to verify this yourself or produce any evidence to the contrary. If you need more than Lautenberg's word for the fact that this bill originated in the DOJ, from the March 25, 2005 WaPo:
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III is forming a study group to review the law that allowed suspected terrorists to buy guns in the United States after they cleared background checks.
Mueller unveiled his plan to form the Justice Department working group, which will include the FBI, in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). The group will also review the Government Accountability Office report that said more than 40 terrorism suspects were able to buy firearms in the United States last year because background checks showed they had no felony convictions and were not illegal immigrants.
And that was just the first non-Lautanberg source of 29,000 documents from the keywords, "Mueller guns terrorists "working group"."
This has been going on for a LONG time and it wasn't invisible at all. To claim that the President didn't know about it is to believe that he has no clue as to what's going on in the government. So until you can produce a document refuting that this originated and was pushed by the Department of Justice, it stands.
Mueller unveiled his plan to form the Justice Department working group, which will include the FBI, in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). The group will also review the Government Accountability Office report that said more than 40 terrorism suspects were able to buy firearms in the United States last year because background checks showed they had no felony convictions and were not illegal immigrants.Unless one wants the likes of Janet Reno defining "terrorism suspects", it should be clear what an insanely bad idea this law is.
For this alone, Gonzalez may be the worst appointment since John Magaw (Clinton's ATF director and the model for "Dwight Greenwell") was made head of the TSA.
-Eric
1. I never claimed the President "didn't know about it", but your assertion that unless I can prove otherwise, the President orchestrates every action the Justice Dept. takes is ludicrous.
2. You posted the article, not me, and you've made it clear with the slam about Bush & the constitution you were not able to back up that you're more interested in throwing mud at the President than presenting evidence to support your claims.
EdReform - not you - has now posted a link to the text of the bill. Though someone with a good working knowledge of the US Code needs to analyze it, as it is primarily an amendment(s) to Title 18, and also section 101 of the immigration and naturalization act, my initial reaction is that it's too broad and gives too much discretion to one individual.
It does provide for appeals, but it is not clear to me after a quick scan that the court, employer or the defendent would be at any time be able to view the evidence being used against them by the AG as described on page 8 & 9 and other similar paragraphs.
It does not describe a specific loophole, as Lautenburg claims in his press release.
I don't know why the mandatory background checks and waiting periods currently in place are not sufficient for keeping terrorists from legally buying guns, and nothing in this bill suggests the current system's failings, so I don't see the need for this bill.