NATIONAL GUN REGISTRATION

 

A bill recently introduced by Senators TED KENNEDY (D-MA) and CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY) would effectively create a national gun registry.

By the simple trick of allowing National Instant Check System (NICS) records to be used by “any federal, state or local law enforcement agency in connection with a civil or criminal law enforcement investigation,” the new bill would sidestep the federal law that prohibits the creation of a national firearms registry.

The new bill, S. 1788, is virtually identical to a bill the two anti-gun senators in July, S. 1253, with a new twist: a false terrorist link.

S. 1788, the new KENNEDY-SCHUMER bill, came in response to a recent Department of Justice decision reaffirming that NICS records cannot be held for anything other than what the Brady Act allows, and not to compare lawful gun buyers to terrorist suspects. The Brady Act established NICS specifying that cleared purchase records be destroyed.

The CLINTON administration’s Attorney General JANET RENO ruled that the Department of Justice could keep cleared records as long as six months in an “audit log.” CLINTON regulations prohibited any use of such records for anything except auditing the NICS system.

Earlier this year, BUSH administration Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT ruled that the original intent of the Brady Act demanded quicker destruction of cleared NICS purchase records than the six months the CLINTON administration allowed. Attorney General ASHCROFT then issued regulations instructing the Department of Justice that records of approved purchases be destroyed no later than 24 hours after the gun purchase.

On the other hand, NICS records that identify criminals and other disqualified persons are different: they must, by law, be kept indefinitely. They are available to law enforcement agencies, state and local. The ASHCROFT 24-hour decision protects the privacy rights only of law abiding gun owners.

However, following the ASHCROFT ruling to destroy NICS-cleared records in 24 hours, angry gun-ban politicians including Sen KENNEDY and Sen. SCHUMER sought a way to defeat the BUSH administration.

Resorting to the most vile tactic available, KENNEDY and SCHUMER tried to play off the horror of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and use terrorism as their justification to turn the NICS system into a national gun owner registry.

Senate Democrats insisted that ASHCROFT break the law and release the names of thousands of law abiding gun owners from the NICS system to be compared with lists of the individuals, mostly illegal aliens, who were in custody as part of the government investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks. When ASHCROFT refused, the Democrats went berserk.

The KENNEDY-SCHUMER bill was one result. Their bill would allow 90 days to destroy the records, but that destruction wouldn’t apply to records given to others federal, state or local agencies for their own investigations. The records would then be out of control, available forever.

It would be a simple matter to turn the uncontrollable records into a national gun registry database, something America cannot tolerate.

 

DEMOCRAT-BACKED GUN CONTROL GROUP LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN

Democrats don’t seem to like the fact that gun sales are up since September 11 and that billboards advocating guns for self defense are boosting sales.

NAN ARON is president of the Washington, D.C.-based anti-gun group, Alliance for Justice. Her salary is $106,300 with benefits of $2,087. The Alliance recently held a news conference with Rep. HENRY WAXMAN (D-CA) and Rep. CAROLYN McCARTHY (D-NY), complaining about billboards promoting guns for self-defense in the wake of 9-11. They also didn’t like gunmakers donating to 9-11 victims.

Gun maker Beretta offered a “United We Stand” 9-millimeter pistol similar to the sidearm U.S. troops have carried since 1985. A limited edition sold out in a day. Beretta donated $100,000 to relatives of the victims of 9-11, and is sending another $50 for each additional United We Stand gun it sells.

Here’s Alliance president ARON’s well-paid whining response: “We shouldn’t seek to help the victims of one senseless tragedy by increasing the likelihood of more senseless tragedies.”

There is no record that the Alliance gave any of its $4.5 million budget to 9-11 victims.

The non-profit Alliance is not so non-partisan: its Chairman of the Board, JAMES WEILL, gave $1,000 to HILLARY CLINTON’s Senate campaign, and treasurer GREG WETSTONE donates to the Democratic National Committee and Democrat candidates.

The Alliance has put up 135 billboards in the Los Angeles area warning about the dangers of guns in the home. The Alliance is funded by big money foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the rabidly anti-gun Joyce Foundation, GEORGE SOROS’ Open Society Institute, and the Packard Foundation (the Hewlett-Packard company fortune), and many other left wing elites.

The Alliance’s foundation-driven anti-gun campaign is partly to respond to the 300 billboards put up by the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) in October.

CRPA’s billboards read: “Society is safer when criminals don’t know who is armed.” CRPA’s billboards were designed and contracted before the September 11 attacks.

CHUCK MICHEL, CRPA spokesman, said, “I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about making people think about one of the tools that’s available to respond to certain threats - threats that were every bit as real before September 11, but threats people are much more aware of since September 11.”                 

 

WHAT GUN SHOW “LOOPHOLE”?

Researchers recently found that inmates serving time in state prisons during 1997 said they obtained their guns from the following sources:

Purchased from retail store, 8.3%       Purchased at a pawn shop 3.8%

Purchased at a flea market, 1.0%        Purchased in a gun show, 0.7%

Obtained from friends or family, 39.6%  Got on the street/illegal source, 39.2%

What gun show loophole?

 

ONLINE GUN STING CRITICIZED

Illinois Attorney General JIM RYAN ordered his staff to surf the Internet last year for criminals. The sting netted six firearm sales and a single conviction but no jail time.

Federal authorities criticized RYAN’s approach for not cooperating with the ATF to build a stronger case. RYAN hesitated to prosecute some of the cases because they may have improperly lured gun sellers into illegal acts.

 

ANTI-GUN SHOW CAMPAIGN REVIVED

As he promised, Sen. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) is launching an aggressive campaign to promote S. 890, a bill that would end traditional American gun shows. Sen. McCAIN authored the legislation with Sen. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT).

The bill was stalled in the first session of the 107th Congress, but with the second session beginning this month, it’s back with a vengeance.

McCAIN is using the 9-11 tragedy as a justification for his bill, using mythical claims that Hamas and other Islamic terrorists have bought guns from gun shows.

McCAIN does not mention that the 9-11 attacks were carried out with knives, not guns, and that not a single gun was used in the horrific attacks.

McCAIN is working with his old ally, Americans for Gun Safety (AGS), which has committed to spend at least $1 million to promote McCAIN’s bill.

AGS was founded and funded by monster.com billionaire and former Handgun Control Inc. board member ANDREW McKELVEY.

Americans for Gun Safety is listed as a “project” of a San Francisco-based lobbying group called the Tsunami Fund, which itself was once a “project” of the Tides Center, another San Francisco left-wing money funnel.

The motto of AGS is “For every right there is a responsibility,” which is a way to justify gun control by calling it “gun responsibility.” However, American law does not contain any such doctrine of reciprocal rights and responsibilities. Such a doctrine did exist, however, in the law of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

McKELVEY is personally a big-time contributor to Democrat candidates.

Sen. JACK REED (D-RI) seems jealous of McCAIN’s renewed campaign against gun shows, and has said he will push for his own anti-gun show bill.

 

SEN. FEINSTEIN EXPLOITS 9-11 TO PUSH NATIONAL GUN LAW BILL

Not to be outdone by Republican McCAIN, Sen. DIANE FEINSTEIN (D-CA) announced that she will introduce legislation to impose her state’s harsh gun laws on the whole nation.

Her bill would mirror current California law, which requires all gun purchases and transfers, including those between private parties and at gun shows, be made through a licensed dealer.

FEINSTEIN used a report concocted by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence that claims a connection between terrorism and the firearms availability in the United States. The report appears to be pure fiction and conjecture.

“I intend to hold a hearing in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information on this report which shows it is very easy for terrorists to purchase firearms in this nation,” FEINSTEIN said.

She also played “the children card,” adding, “We already know that children can buy guns all too easily in order to kill other children. We known that gang members and criminals can do the same. Clearly, the time has come for a universal background check on all gun sales.”

Sen. FEINSTEIN failed to note that her state’s gun law has had no noticeable effect on crime.

 

GUN DEMILITARIZATION SCHEME DEAD

House-Senate Conference negotiators have killed Section 1062 of the Defense Authorization bill, which allowed any “significant military weapon,” including all guns ever owned by the U.S. government, to be recalled or ordered destroyed.

Rep. BOB STUMP (R-AZ), chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, was instrumental in getting the provision removed.

The provision seemed to allow an administration to destroy all former government arms, vehicles and planes, provoking alarm among gun owners and others.

Members of Congress were uncertain how the provision got into the draft bill for the second year in a row.

 

SPECIAL REPORT: THE DRAMA OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT’S SENATE HEARING

 

If anyone ever stood up for principle in defending gun rights before a hostile inquisition, it was U.S. Attorney General JOHN D. ASHCROFT fending off demands of Senate Democrats to break the law and use NICS records in criminal investigations.

In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. TED KENNEDY (D-MA) quizzed ASHCROFT on why records from the National Instant Check System (NICS) could not be used to see if any of the detainees from the 9-11 terrorist investigation were on the list of those who had bought firearms.

ASHCROFT said that the FBI cannot have access to gun purchase records because the law forbids it. “The only permissible use for the national instant check system is to audit the maintenance of that system,” ASHCROFT said.

ASHCROFT said the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to purchase a firearm at a gun store.

A number of Democrat senators railed against ASHCROFT for his stance.

Since 1968, illegal aliens have been prohibited from possessing guns and ammunition. If an illegal attempted to make a purchase through NICS, it would be denied, and records of denials are kept for ten years. They can be and are used for criminal or terrorist investigations.

A flap arose five days after the 9-11 attack when the assistant FBI director, JOHN COLLINGWOOD, asked the FBI to check a list of 186 names of detainees against the NICS background check records. The FBI found 2 names of detainees who had been approved to buy guns. The next day, the NICS unit was advised that reviews for this purpose were not permissible.

It was not established whether the two purchase-approved detainees were among those later released and cleared, but the anti-gun New York Times featured the incident in an article trying to make ASHCROFT look bad.

An opinion editorialist in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stood up for ASHCROFT, saying, “To me, the question is not whether we should be able to tell whether alleged terrorists illegally purchased guns, but how to keep them from buying guns in the first place.”

Senators grilled ASHCROFT, asking if he wants the power to review gun records in the fight against terrorism. ASHCROFT replied that he would not comment on a “hypothetical.”

Senators KENNEDY and SCHUMER later retaliated with a bill to force the Attorney General to make NICS records available for any criminal investigation (see front page story).

 

GUN SHOP OWNER SUES ATF OVER RECORDS

ROBERT MARCUS owns Bob’s Gun & Tackle Shop in Norfolk, Virginia. He’s run it for 32 years. He has always been cooperative with federal agents to help trace a firearm through his store. He says he wants to do his part to prevent criminals from getting guns.

But when Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco and Firearms asked him for records of the store’s used gun sales, MARCUS balked. The ATF threatened criminal action and the loss of his license to sell guns.

MARCUS not only refused, he took the agency to court. His claim is that the government is trying to compile a database of gun owners, something Congress has strictly forbidden.

Bob’s is the only gun shop to sue.

In June, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond decided that a Baltimore firearms dealer must turn over to the ATF records of all new and used gun sales.

But the case is different from Bob’s, in that the Baltimore dealer failed to comply with specific ATF trace requests, a violation of federal law.

Bob’s broke no law, and had previously complied with all trace requests. He sued because this time the ATF wanted his whole list, not a specific trace.

 

BRITISH GUN BAN BRINGS MASSIVE RISE IN GUN MURDERS

Scotland Yard has revealed that gun crime in London is skyrocketing, with increases of almost 90 percent in some firearms offenses, despite a gun ban.

New figures show London murders with guns increased by 87 percent in the first eight months of 2001 compared with the same period in 2000.

There were significant rises in virtually all offenses involving firearms. Armed muggers increased from 435 to 667, a rise of 53 percent.

Sixteen murders involving black gangsters fighting for control of London’s crack cocaine market represent a leap of 77 percent.

Commander ALAN BROWN, head of the Operation Trident taskforce against “black on black” crime, described the increases as “an extremely worrying development.”

Overall, he said there had been a 20 percent increase in armed crime in London. “The level of violence is increasing, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “We have seen shootings in the [upscale] West End. This is not just happening in [poor] Hackney or Brent, this is a problem for all of London.”

Commander BROWN said he was particularly worried about the scale of “black on black” gun crime and revealed 74 attempted murders had involved black gunmen in 2001, the first time these figures have been compiled.

“These were clear attempts to kill and it is only because of poor marksmanship or poor ammunition that these people were not killed. It seems to be often a matter of luck whether you suffer an injury or you die.”

The Lambeth district of London was the hotspot for gun crime involving armed drug dealing, while other high-crime areas included Hackney, Haringey, Brent and Camden.

Commander BROWN said it was estimated that four tons of cocaine were smuggled into Britain every year on flights from Jamaica, and police had identified a clear link between firearms crime and drug trafficking.

Senior officers are particularly concerned about the rise in robberies involving guns, although they point out most are likely to be imitation.

Commander BROWN said: “Black communities are coming to the stage where they are saying enough is enough. They are more supportive of us than they were three years ago.

“We are talking about black criminals committing offenses against the black community. There is no doubt that the majority of suspects in street robberies are black.

“If you look at the majority of suspects committing armed commercial robbery, the suspects are black. This is a shift from years ago when most armed commercial robberies were committed by whites.”

Such racial descriptions would not be used in the United States.

The rise in criminals using guns is exactly what an American would expect in a country that has banned guns. Britain is now in the predictable position of the popular bumper sticker motto: when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

 

CANADIAN EXPERT LINKS GUN CONTROL TO INCREASED BREAK-INS

 Canadians are more likely to have their homes broken into than Americans, and one expert believes Canada’s strict gun-control laws may be part of the reason.

A Canadian Center for Justice Statistics report recently released revealed that Canada had 954 break-ins per 100,000 residents in 2000, compared to 728 in the U.S., although violent crime is far more prevalent south of the border.

That has been the trend since the early 1990s, with property crime generally worse in Canada. Winnipeg and Vancouver had more break-and-enters and auto thefts than any major U.S. city in 2000.

“In the United States, there are a lot more people with guns and they have the right to protect themselves and their property. That scares off a lot of burglars,” said Dr. MARC OUIMET, a Université de Montréal criminologist and a leading expert on crime statistics.

 

MORE IN U.S. CARRY GUNS - RESTRICTIONS LOSE SUPPORT

The Christian Science Monitor, not known for its support of gun rights, recently reported that in the wake of 9-11, Americans everywhere are arming themselves.

The news feature begins in a gun shop in Tucson, Arizona, where people are buying guns, guns, and more guns. The reporters comment that “Guns are a way of life in Arizona, but since Sept. 11, it appears that Americans nationwide are finding comfort, increasingly, in a warm gun.”

In Massachusetts, gun instructors are reporting 50 percent increases in class size. In Virginia, a class required for carrying a concealed weapon has a month-long waiting list. Florida saw a 50 percent rise in September in criminal background checks that are required for carrying a concealed weapon.

A Gallup poll taken a month after the attacks found American’s desire for stricter firearms laws had dropped, with only 53 percent in support of such measures - the number had not been below 60 percent for nearly a decade.

 

FORMER DELAWARE GOVERNOR NOTES INCREASED GUN OWNERSHIP

Pete Du Pont, a former Governor of liberal Delaware, noted in the Wall Street Journal that gun sales in his state are up 32% since Sept. 11, range use is up 25%, and advanced gun classes are booked three months ahead.

Du Pont adds that FBI reports since the terrorist attacks show that requests for gun-related background checks through the NICS system rose 20%.

Concealed-weapons applications tripled in Texas, and, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, filings for gun-purchase background checks increased 50% in the weeks following 9-11. Florida news articles report “a dramatic increase in gun and ammunition purchases, particularly among women, senior citizens and first-time gun owners.”

 

EXPLAINING SOARING GUN PURCHASES BY ANTI-GUN NEW YORKERS

GARY HOBBS, an Albany, New York psychologist, offered a common-sense explanation for the surge in gun purchases by anti-gun New Yorkers: “It’s not much of a mystery,” said HOBBS. “What’s going on is people obviously identify with their countrymen who have been killed en masse in a totally unpredicted and unpredictable catastrophe, an attack, Among other things, it raises a sense of vulnerability and insecurity, and that comes out in different ways.”

MICHAEL ZULLO, who has a firearms sale business and also teaches handgun safety courses, agrees. “‘I’m scared,’ that’s what I get. Anti-gunners coming out of the woodwork. Now they want guns.”

But people are still buying more guns months after the attacks. And the probability these gun owners will actually fight terrorists with their new firearms is remote.

VIC FERRANTE, a retired Air National Guard firearms instructor, had a tongue in cheek attitude. He said of the surge of anti-gunners now buying guns, “I guess they expect the Afghans to come in by parachute or something.”

Psychologist HOBBS said, “When people react to trauma, particularly if the reaction comes weeks or months later, the connection between their behavior and the event may not always be apparent to them. And even if the connection is clear, the reaction is often more symbolic than practical. It’s an emotional thing. It’s just far-fetched that they’re going to protect themselves from a terrorist.”

Some gun buyers say they’re more afraid of civil unrest in the event another terrorist attack disables normal law enforcement response. It’s home defense.

WAYNE SHRONE, who owns Accurate Arms & Ammo in the little town of Niskayuna, New York, agreed. “Home-defense shotguns were a big thing,” he said. “Even older people here, who never had guns, came in and got them.”

Schenectady County had to print up extra permit forms, said County Clerk JOHN WOODWARD. The county issued 184 permits during all of 2000, but since Sept. 11, the office has handed out more than 300 applications.

 

GUN NEWS TICKER: SHORT TAKES ON GUNS

 

l  Tora Bora, Afghanistan: Fox News’ newly-hired reporter Geraldo Rivera said he’s packing a gun in an area where eight journalists had recently been killed. And he’d use it to defend himself, if necessary, from hostile Taliban killers. “My brother, (producer) Craig and I, we refuse to be crime victims. We’re not the victim types.” Those with longer memories than a TV sound bite may recall that non-victim Rivera repeatedly supported Clinton administration efforts to enact horrendous gun control legislation. News organizations said it’s unwise for a reporter to carry a gun because combatants are less likely to believe they are journalists, which makes them targets -- and makes the job tougher for all news people. Fox News spokesman Robert Zimmerman said Rivera isn’t necessarily carrying a gun, but is accompanied by two guards who have five guns between them. Rivera could get a gun quickly if he wanted to.

l  Tallahassee, Florida: Anti-gun talk show host Rosie O’Donnell recently hosted a fund-raise