Bill Offered to Give FBI Access to Gun Records

Bill Offered to Give FBI Access to Gun Records
December 7, 2001 6:56 pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A day after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress existing law does not allow the FBI to compare the names of suspected terrorists with federal gun purchase records, two senators introduced a bill on Friday to allow such action.

"It makes no sense to deny these records to the FBI in its ongoing investigation of the atrocities of September 11th," Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said in a statement.

Kennedy joined Sen. Charles Schumer of New York in offering the measure. Both are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, before which Ashcroft testified on Thursday.

The attorney general, in defending his decision to block the FBI from using gun documents in its probe of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, said the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to buy a firearm.

His stand drew angry words from a number of Democrats, who noted the former U.S. Republican senator from Missouri has been a longtime defender of gun rights.

Asked at Thursday's hearing if he wanted the FBI to have the power to review gun records in its terror investigation, Ashcroft said he would not comment on "a hypothetical," but would be "happy to consider" any such legislation that would enable it to do so.

Kennedy said on Friday the bill he and Schumer offered would do that, and called on the administration to back it.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department said it would review the regulations on accessing gun-purchase records.

A Justice Department official told reporters on Friday he would check with the FBI and other agencies to see if they thought there was an "operational need" to warrant a change in the law.

"We are continuing this top to bottom review, so we will take a look at it now that the question has been raised," the official said.

Midnight snack: maybe they're just Arabs who married American women and want to protect themselves from folks who lump them all into one category.

Breakfast treat: wake up and smell the coffee. I was talking about THOSE ARABS who married American women just to get citizenship. Period. Not about other Arabs who are innocent, but of those who did just what I said, and there are some who did just that, no matter how much some of us want to believe that there are no such people amongst us.

It's been 3 years, and I don't know his exact route. His story was part of the fireside chat we had at Mongo's house. But I drove right past Chicago to get to the tollways, I'm assuming that if he went from Texas up to Illinois, he was catching the same tollways.

I'm trying to read through what You are saying (I'm no where close to a lawyer)what I'm understanding is that States have powers that the feds don't and that this bill is probably a formality, especially with the NSA.

I may decide to sue them...who knows.

Hmm, gun owners in a class action against the powers that be. You just might get a little support for that... ;-)

Here's an excerpt from National Instant Criminal Background Check System Regulation:

The NICS Audit Log will contain information relating to each NICS background check requested by FFLs and POCs. By auditing the system, the FBI can identify instances in which the NICS is used for unauthorized purposes, such as running checks of people other than the actual gun transferees, and protect against the invasions of privacy that would result from such misuse. Audits can also determine whether potential handgun purchasers or FFLs have stolen the identity of innocent and unsuspecting individuals or otherwise submitted false identification information. The Audit Log will also allow the FBI to perform quality control checks on the system's operation by reviewing the accuracy of the responses given by the NICS record examiners to gun dealers.

You're right, they get away with this crapola because nobody call them on it. I know of a few instances here where local law enforcement started tacking fees on to applications for permits and adding their own provisions to the applications - both of which were remedied by somebody taking the authority to task. Somebody HAS to remind these people what the law is.

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