Posted on 07/31/2002 2:59:51 AM PDT by Selmo
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Four senators, calling themselves an "odd quad," joined together Tuesday to expand the database of information used to permit or deny gun purchases through the FBI's "National Instant Check System."
The four introduced the "Our Lady of Peace Act," which is identical to the companion bill of the same name in the House (H.R. 4757).
The bill is named after a church in Lynbrook, N.Y., where the pastor and a parishioner were shot to death by a man who had a history of mental illness and violent behavior, and was under a restraining order for domestic violence - which he had violated at least twice - when the shooting occurred.
"We are an odd group," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of his colleagues: Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). "But not when it comes to making sure that guns are kept away from drug addicts, felons, illegal aliens, and others."
"The problem is that this kind of information is not always shared with the NICS system," Schumer said. "And so, when the background check is performed, the information never appears, the red flags aren't raised, and the gun purchase goes right through."
Craig said the government has a responsibility to make background checks instant, accurate, and complete, and no excuse for not doing so.
"In a nation where you can walk into any store and swipe your credit card and have an instant accounting of your financial capabilities," he explained, "we cannot do something similar to determine whether that individual is legal or illegal in the action of purchasing a firearm, shame on us as a system for not doing that."
The legislation would mandate that information be provided to the FBI for inclusion in NICS on individuals who:
* Are under indictment or have been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison;
* Are fugitives from justice;
* Are unlawful users and/or addicts of any controlled substance; * Have been adjudicated as mentally defective or have been committed to any mental institution;
* Are subject to a court order restraining them from domestic violence; or
* Have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.
The proposal would provide grants to the states to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations; and to improve the reporting of criminal history dispositions and temporary restraining orders as they relate to disqualification from firearms ownership.
McCain noted that checking mental health records, which are seldom automated, has been the main impediment to truly "instant" background checks.
"Probably ten or 15 years ago, technology would not allow us to consider this kind of legislation," he said. "I hope that, with the passage of this bill, that we will be able to, with further improvements in technology, provide for the instant background checks that all of us seek."
Schumer attempted to calm the fears of mental health advocates, who worry personal information about their clients could be inadvertently released by the NICS system.
"We've taken real precautions on that, to really guard the privacy of the mentally ill," he said. "It should be on the record that somebody's mental illness, or being committed to an institution doesn't allow them to have a gun, but all the details are still kept completely away, even from the [NICS] system."
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), says the bill still risks the privacy of the mentally ill, and makes a very incorrect assumption about mental illness.
"We object to that as a violation of their medical privacy rights," he told CNSNews.com . "Also, just on pragmatic grounds, knowing that someone has had a mental problem in the past has absolutely nothing to do with predicting future violent behavior."
Pratt points to research published in "Violence and Mental Disorder: Development in Risk Assessment" by John Monahan and Henry Steadman (University of Chicago Press). The study found that mental health professionals could not accurately predict violent behavior even in a group of known mentally ill criminals with a history of violence.
"Psychiatrists and psychologists are accurate in no more than one out of three predictions of violent behavior over a several-year period among institutionalized populations that had both committed violence in the past (and thus had high base rates for it), and who were diagnosed as mentally ill," the report stated.
"They would have done better flipping a coin," Pratt quipped.
The individual responsible for the "Our Lady of Peace" murders was not arrested for the two previous violations of a restraining order, offenses that would have carried mandatory jail time had he been arrested.
"Why didn't they pick him up?" Pratt asked, rhetorically.
Gun Owners of America has compiled documentation of numerous instances where mandatory background checks and other delays cost citizens their lives.
In one such incident, Bonnie Elmasri wanted to obtain a gun to protect herself from her husband, who had repeatedly threatened to kill her. Before the mandatory waiting period and background check had been completed, her husband killed Elmasri and her two sons.
GOA research has also documented instances where individuals denied firearms by the NICS system were able to obtain them illegally.
The group cites the 1999 case of Benjamin Smith, who was rejected by a background check when he tried to buy a weapon from an Illinois gun dealer. According to a published report, Smith "hit the streets and in just three days had two handguns" from an illegal source. Less than a week after being "prohibited" from obtaining a gun by the NICS system, Smith shot two people to death and wounded nine others.
Pratt believes the legislation is merely another attempt to exploit a tragic event with the actual goal of chipping away at the Second Amendment right of individuals to own and possess firearms.
"It's just another 'Schumer & Company' effort to expand the number of Americans who are 'legally' prohibited from owning a gun," he added. "And what Schumer is talking about is not going to make anybody any safer, at all."
The co-sponsors expect both the Senate and House to pass the proposal after the August recess. They say they have been working with the Justice Department to insure that the language of the measure is acceptable to the White House in hopes that the bill would be signed into law before the end of the year.
This is hogwash. Drug addicts, felons, and illegal aliens get their guns on the street and never undergo a check of any kind.
To improve the national instant criminal background check system, and for other purposes.
Check it out, It's all about the money.
What an understatement.
Nothing odd about this group. They are all a group of anti-American, left wing ideologues. The only guy who surprises me is the character from Idaho.
If John McCane has ANY hope of running for President on the Republican ticket, he's day-dreaming. I and and an army of other pro-gun conservatives will do everything to defeat his primary bid, and, should he get nominated by some fluke, would rather vote for a honest anti-gun liberal DemocRAT than see this slimy Judas sitting in the White House.
Takes me by surprise. I think he was an NRA board member. Maybe I ought to start listening to what GOA says about NRA.
It should be common knowledge by now that the so-called "instant" background check is absolutely worthless at keeping guns away from criminals, and this additional legislation will only make it slower and more intrusive while doing nothing to make it any more effective. Anyone who thinks more laws will do anything to prevent criminals and maniacs from obtaining guns should check with the UK cops. After ALL handguns were totally banned in the UK there is far more violence being committed with handguns over there now than there was before the ban.
An odd group? The only person that seems out of place is Sen. Craig.
Define "instant." If it's really instant and doesn't inhibit law-abiding citizens from being able to obtain firearms, then it sounds acceptable to me...but I can't trust anything that has Schumer, Kennedy, McCain and company on board...it makes it instantly suspicious.
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