Free Republic

The Illinois State Police have collected computerized records of 2.15 million firearms transactions since 1992, when the state launched instant background checks of gun buyers. Now, Gov. Blagojevich is trying to fend off federal efforts to scrap this statewide database of gun purchases that he believes is key to the fight against terrorism and street crime -- but which the gun lobby calls an infringement of buyers' constitutional rights. Blagojevich is concerned about a law Congress passed in January requiring the FBI to destroy records of instant background checks within 24 hours. The U.S. Justice Department has warned Illinois it...

A bill limiting police management of gun records, drafted by the National Rifle Association, wins preliminary approval in the Florida Senate. TALLAHASSEE - Police departments would be banned from compiling some gun records that could help them solve some crimes more quickly, under a proposal that legislators want the governor to sign into law. The bill, drafted by the National Rifle Association, got preliminary approval Wednesday by the state Senate. Democrats from South Florida opposed it as anti-law enforcement. But Sen. Durell Peaden, a Crestview Republican, said it is needed to stop back-door gun control. Reading from an NRA-supplied fact...

JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press WriterWednesday, July 24, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/24/national0443EDT0494.DTL (07-24) 01:43 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Destroying government records of firearm purchases after one day instead of three months could put guns in the hands of criminals who shouldn't have them, congressional investigators say. Attorney General John Ashcroft last year suggested shortening the time period that the government keeps records on people who try to purchase firearms from 90 days to no more than one business day. But doing that would mean that the FBI, which conducts the checks, won't be able to go back to...