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Posted on 11/16/2001 1:23:12 PM PST by Hail Caesar

Brady Campaign: Groups Call For Stronger Gun Laws
U.S. Newswire
15 Nov 15:53

Law Enforcement, Religious and Gun Safety Groups Call for Stronger
Gun Laws to Increase Homeland Security
To: National Desk
Contact: Brendan Daly of the Brady Campaign, 202-898-0792
 

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Leaders of national law
enforcement, religious and gun safety organizations today called
for strengthening federal gun laws as vital to any plan to increase
our Homeland Security, saying criminal background checks should be
required for all firearms sales.

Participating in the press conference were the International
Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO), the National Troopers
Coalition (NTC), the Hispanic American Police Command Officers
Association (HAPCOA), the Arab American Institute, the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish
Women, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and the
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

"I can't tell you how many lives will be saved by applying the
same background check system that now applies to gun store sales to
gun shows. But I do know that murderers, armed robbers, and even
terrorists, exploit the gun show loophole," said Richard Gallo,
Vice President of the IBPO and a retired police officer from
Cranston, R.I.

Participants called for comprehensive criminal background checks
of gun purchasers to prevent criminals and terrorists from
obtaining guns, and the retention of records to help law
enforcement track crime guns and to protect public safety.

"As our nation struggles to fight a broad war against terrorism,
it is unconscionable that loopholes in our laws allow terrorists to
buy firearms easily in the United States," said Michael Barnes,
President of the Brady Campaign, which convened the news
conference.

"If President Bush is serious about denying weapons to
terrorists, and I believe that he is, then he should support our
efforts to take this simple step that will solve this problem - by
requiring a criminal background check every time a firearm is
sold," Barnes said.

Barnes and others cited alarming examples of the need to extend
the background check to every firearm sale. On Sept. 10, the day
before the devastating terrorist attacks, a jury in Michigan
convicted Ali Boumelhem, a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah,
on charges of conspiring to smuggle guns and ammunition to Lebanon.
He had obtained the weapons at a gun show in Michigan, one of 32
states that do not require unlicensed sellers at gun shows to
conduct criminal background checks on gun purchasers.

Elvin Crespo, First Vice President of HAPCOA and an inspector
with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Washington, D.C, said
the gun show loophole is "one of the potentially deadliest flaws in
our nation's gun laws. Now, more than ever, we must not allow this
method of purchasing guns."

Majed Jafari, Director of Government Relations for the Arab
American Institute, said many Arab Americans own small businesses
and live with fear that someone, armed with a gun, will try to rob
them. "Performing background checks and keeping records of all
guns sold can help prevent many of these crimes," Jafari said.
"Additionally, at a time when our community is concerned with
backlash from the terrorist attacks and with the hate-crimes that
have already occurred, stronger gun legislation sends a signal to
Arab Americans that these crimes won't be tolerated."

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center
of Reform Judaism said: "Our weak gun laws allow criminals,
children, and even terrorists and terrorist organizations easy
access to firearms. In order to protect our nation's citizens and
human beings all around the world, we must strengthen our national
gun laws. We must keep firearms out of the hands of people who do
not value life, people who wish to destroy God's precious gift of
life."

There is strong public support for requiring comprehensive
background checks. In a poll conducted by Celinda Lake earlier
this year, 92 percent of all Americans surveyed, and 86 percent of
gun owners, said they support background checks for all gun sales.

"Closing the gun show loophole to extend background checks and
mandating that public records of gun sales are retained are basic
anti-terrorism measures that must be put in place immediately to
ensure Homeland Security," said Sammie Moshenberg, Director of
Washington Operations for the National Council of Jewish Women.

"Requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales and
retaining records of sale are obvious, clear, and popular
anti-terror measures," said Joshua Horwitz, General Counsel for the
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "Just as we law-abiding citizens
understand the need for background checks for airport security
personnel, so too do we understand the need for a background check
before buying a weapon. And a record of sale makes it easier for
law enforcement to trace when a gun has been sold illegally."

Currently, it is extremely difficult for law enforcement
officials to trace the source of guns recovered in crime because
there is no centralized database of sales. Police have to trace
firearms through manufacturers, distributors, and individual gun
dealers in an arduous, time-consuming process. Even worse, once
the gun has been sold by a retail dealer, it can be re-sold by the
owner -- and any subsequent owner -- generally without any records
kept, thereby causing a trail of evidence to go cold before the
criminal or terrorist can be found.

 

KEYWORDS:

GUNS/FIREARMS, POLICY, POLITICAL

http://www.usnewswire.com
-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
11/15 15:53

Copyright 2001, U.S. Newswire

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