Posted on 07/23/2002 2:21:33 PM PDT by USA21
House Panel OKs Tougher Gun Checks
WASHINGTON (AP) - 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 worshipper.
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.
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on states and other federal agencies to provide criminal, mental health and other records, but many are incomplete or outdated.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 lynchpin 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."
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The bill is H.R. 4757
ON THE NET
National Instant Criminal Background Check System:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics.htm
Americans for Gun Safety:
http://www.americansforgunsafety.com
will put the power of the lead program into all 331 ATF offices throughout the United States," former ATF director John Magaw said. "Investigators will have immediate and direct access to the statistics and information provided by that database.
Trace information will now be available nationwide within 24 hours of the completed trace.
"Online Lead
will greatly enhance law enforcement's ability to detect, imprison, and deter criminals-- the criminals behind the criminal who are illegally supplying guns to our communities," said treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.
The system presently contains more than 1 million crime-gun traces.
"We have computerized our firearms traces all the way back to 1989," said ATF special agent Dennis Murphy, who is with the crime-gun analysis branch. Murphy serves as the project's lead coordinator.
"Let's say we wanted to know what firearms were traced in 1999 on Minnesota Avenue, in Washington, D.C. If you're a local police officer and part of your beat in Washington, D.C. is Minnesota Avenue," Murphy said, "it would be helpful for you to know how many crime guns have been recovered this year on that stretch of road."
Murphy sets up an example, in which a series of different firearms are traced from records of guns recovered on Minnesota Avenue.
The first gun in Murphy's fictional example shows where the gun was purchased, information on Joe Doe, the original purchaser, where the gun was recovered, and the fact that officer Dave Smith requested the trace. It also includes the details on the weapon itself.
Many of the recovered guns are stored in a firearms library in Washington, D.C. The vault contains conventional guns and rifles, as well as rare firearms such as a self-contained, silenced machine gun.
"These are just a few of the firearms that we have in our firearms library. Many of these are in the firearms trace database," said special agent Tracey Hite. "They've been recovered in crimes and ATF agents have submitted these for our firearms library. They help us determine the function and capability of firearms that are involved in ongoing cases."
Online Lead can tell you just about anything you want to know about most of these guns.
When a gun is recovered, instant access to more than a million records is invaluable to law enforcement. Online Lead can do better than any human being can by identifying multiple gun sale trends, and pinpointing gun trafficking.
What your address
The NRA wants a kinder, gentler type of gun control?
Give 'em a few more years and the database will be up to speed. Then the fun begins.
That's when we say to the politicos: Go ahead, make my day.
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 worshipper.
"The entire lynchpin 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."
Perhaps you can tell that to a totally innocent 20-year-old Joseph Schultz who was shot point blank in the face by FBI-agent Christopher Braga who went Scott-free. Ask Joseph Schultz which he fears morel; some lunatic with a gun or an FBI agent with a gun? He may reply, "what's the difference?"
Then keep the loonies locked up. It is unreasonable to think that mere laws will keep guns out of the hands of all the dangerous people walking the streets today - indeed, locking them up doens't assure success since the Texas Seven stole the guard's guns and were armed even before setting foot on non-prison soil.
But don't create a caste system in which some people are denied the legal ability to buy guns that others of us may do - such that we all have to go around proving that we are members of the latter class, not the former. For one, it's offensive to have to demonstrate the class one is in, or even to have classes at all, and second, it's not like the background checks are able to reduce criminal access to guns at all in the first place.
You do realize that the eventual definition of "mental illness" used for purposes of this statute will be if you ever saw a psychiatrist even once, don't you?
Anyone who wants to own a gun in this day and age must be crazy.
Therefore, gun ownership shall be taken as prima facia evidence of insanity, and that person's guns shall therefore be forfeit.
Private gun ownership is therefore henceforth utterly banned.
(It's for the children.)
No, it couldn't have, you ignorant gun grabbing socialist knobhead.
Amen. The idea that someone is too evil/crazy to be armed, but not so bad that he can't be held, strikes me as totally foolish.
Our goal should be a 100% armed society, one where there is no longer a gun gap between whites and blacks.
My, oh my, but the taxpayers have deep pockets. I wonder what Congress would have done had he decided to drive a car into a crowd of people at the church, instead.
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