[AuntB]

I found more about this bill (was hopin’ it wasn’t true!) on Lautenberg’s web site.

http://lautenberg.senate.gov/documents/domestic/TerrorGap/index.cfm

Closing the “Terror Gap” - Terrorists Access to Guns

On Thursday, April 26, 2007, Senator Lautenberg introduced legislation to prohibit terrorist suspects from purchasing firearms, mirroring an Administration plan released yesterday. The bill seeks to close the “terror gap” in federal gun law by giving the Attorney General the power to block gun sales to terror suspects. Under current federal gun law, there is no provision to deny suspected terrorists from purchasing a firearm.

Under the federal Brady Act, a licensed firearms dealer must request a background check through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) before an unlicensed individual may purchase a weapon. However, even if a NICS check reveals that the prospective purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist, nothing in current law prevents that person from purchasing a gun unless he or she meets one of the other disqualifying factors, including felony or domestic abuse convictions.

In January 2005, the GAO produced a report to Sens. Lautenberg and Biden (D-DE) that found that from February 3 to June 30, 2004, a total of 44 firearm purchase attempts were made by individuals designated as known or suspected terrorists by the federal government. In 35 cases, the FBI authorized the transactions to proceed because FBI field agents were unable to find any disqualifying information (such as felony convictions or illegal immigrant status) within the federally prescribed three business days.

Following the GAO report in March 2005, Sen. Lautenberg wrote letters to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller requesting recommendations on existing laws and Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations permitting terrorists to purchase guns and, in response to the Senator’s request, the DOJ created a department-wide working group that eventually produced a series of recommendations. That working group produced the legislative recommendations that Lautenberg introduced last night.

This week — more than two years later — DOJ recommended the introduction of the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007.” The Administration’s recommendation came only following last week’s tragedy at Virginia Tech and the day before Director Mueller’s testimony in front of Sen. Lautenberg at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI’s 2008 budget.

Sen. Lautenberg’s measure – the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007” – specifically:

* Provides the Attorney General with discretionary authority to deny the transfer of a firearm or the issuance of a firearm or explosives license or permit when a background check reveals that the purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist and the Attorney General reasonably believes that the person may use a firearm or explosives in connection with terrorism;
* Includes due process safeguards that afford an affected person an opportunity to challenge a denial by the Attorney General; and
* Protects the sensitive information upon which terrorist watch list listings are based.

Should this new measure become law, it would be the first change to the Brady Law since Sen. Lautenberg’s 1996 law that has kept more than 150,000 guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Relevant Documents:

* GAO produced a report to Sens. Lautenberg and Biden (D-DE)
* Senator Lautenberg’s 2005 Letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
* Senator Lautenberg’s 2005 Letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller
* Senator’s request to the DOJ to create a department-wide working group
* DOJ’s Working Group Recommendations
* DOJ recommended the introduction of the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007
* Video Clip of Director Mueller responding to Senator Lautenberg on Destruction of Background Check Data at the Appropriations Committee Hearing (April 26, 2007)
* Senator Lautenberg’s Bill: Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007

[Carry_Okie]

Great job AuntB.

Do you think this should be breaking news?

[blackie]

These gutter-snipes are really trampling on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights!!

[mrsmith]

Thanks the text of the introduced bill is at the bottom of your link: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/assets/terrorgap/Lautenberg_Bill_4_26_07.pdf

It’s awful: “or appropriately suspected” boy, that’s a heck of a legal phrase.

Unless an indictment or some such real legal process is required the bill is unconstututional on it’s face.

Besides being stupid: it requires revealing that the person is under suspicion.

[omnivore]

Notice also that they deliberately ignore the opportunity to actually arrest or otherwise detain "known or suspected terrorists."

Sen. Lautenberg and Sen. Biden seem perfectly happy to let "known or suspected terrorists" walk around free among us. As long as they don't buy their guns from an FFL dealer who would make them take a background check.

That enormous loophole - that this is supposedly about stopping gun purchases rather than about getting "known or suspected terrorists" off the streets - is the tipoff that this is really about ordinary people who want to buy guns, not about actual terrorists. That is, Hillary or whoever else (including possibly Rudy McRomney, from the way those three disparage the 2nd Amendment) will simply label anyone she wants a "suspected terrorist" just to cut them off from gun sales.

No argument that Gonzalez is a nitwit. But this just means that in the 2008 primaries, picking a strong and long-track-record 2nd Amendment supporter will be critical.