From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Thu Feb 04 1999 - 14:52:17 MST
I was talking with a high school buddy the other day, who happens to own
a gun shop. I asked him how the new Brady Bill II requirements for
insta-checks on all gun buyers was working. He said the following
interesting things:
a) the ATF and FBI refuse to acknowledge the actual number of people who
have been rejected by the insta-check system, or of the number of these
people who have been or will be arrested, prosecuted or convicted for
the felony act of attempting to purchase a firearm by a previously
convicted felon. The 'actual' numbers are supposedly around 13,000
felons who have been 'prevented' from purchasing guns, according to
Handgun Control, Inc., Sarah Brady's little fascist movement. They
acknowledge that NOT ONE person has been arrested, charged, tried, or
convicted yet for these felonious acts, but they claim that (apparently
they, unlike anyone on the pro-gun side, can get inside information, in
violation of federal regulations) "investigations, which take time, are
pending", which obviously could mean anything. Pending in the round
file...
b) the methodology of the Handgun Control Inc's numbers are as follows:
i) if the application is instantly refused for any reason, count it
as a 'prevented gun purchase by a felon', even if it is not a felony,
even if the offense that is in the database is not qualified to prevent
a gun purchase.
ii) if the application is not refused within 3 days, and the person
is legally allowed to buy the gun, as per the regs, but something later
comes up (it apparently does not have to be a felony to make a hiccough
in the system), then that is also counted as a 'prevented gun purchase
by a felon', even though the person has actually been allowed to buy the
gun and may have it in his or her posession for as much as 6 months
before the feds catch up with the paperwork.
iii) if the application is not refused within 3 days, and the person
is allowed to take the gun home 3 days after the purchase, and the ATF
actually does not have any problem with the person, it is still counted
as a 'prevented gun purchase by a felon'.
iv) if the application is not refused within 3 days, but the person
is a former felon (it is possible to get a felony conviction expunged
from your record if its not a violent felony and if you jump through
certain hoops) but the ATF does not come through with the approval code
for the purchase within 3 months (even though the purchaser has been
allowed to take the gun home), it is still counted as a 'prevented gun
purchase by a felon'.
So it seems like the HCI propaganda is most probably a complete
smokescreen to justify their lobbying. Unfortunately the Clinton's and
the Gore's are touting the stats right out of the HCI press releases as
if they are fact, and the public is eating it up like gospel. Even
congressional Republicans are repeating the anti-gun spin.
What is the Harm? you might ask. Well, for starters, people are being
prevented from being able to arm themselves against imminent danger,
which has already caused several deaths, mostly of women who were killed
by their husbands with illegally obtained firearms. Not only that, but
the system is adding around $10 to the cost of every gun purchase or
repair (note: if you take your gun in for service, you have to go thru
the insta-check system to get your gun back, and you may not get it back
for several extra days while they hold it pending the check). Gun shops
have to pay for the cost of extra phone lines to use for the instacheck
modems/thin-clients, and for the long distance charges (it apparently
does not function yet over the internet). Moreover, the feds are holding
onto the records of your gun purchases for at least 6 months, and they
want to hold onto the information for as much as 18 months, all of which
is in violation of the law requiring that the information be destroyed
immediately after approval is granted.
Mike Lorrey
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