Its a real problem. Frank Lautenberg and the FBI are trying to fix it, but the NRA is getting in the way.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-03-14-terrorists-guns_x.htmFBI suggests Congress ban gun sales to terrorism suspects
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON ? FBI Director Robert Mueller suggested Tuesday that Congress consider barring terrorism suspects from legally buying guns after an audit found that 47 people on a terrorism watch list were approved for purchases last year.
FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies at the House of Representatives.
Paul J. Richards, AFP
Gun sales are denied to convicted felons, fugitives, convicted drug users, illegal aliens and others under federal gun laws. But a Government Accountability Office report made public Tuesday pointed out that being suspected of having a link to a terrorist or a terrorist group is not among the nine criteria that prevent someone from legally buying a firearm. It only triggers a more intense background check of the person before a gun dealer can sell them a gun.
"We ought to look at what can be done to perhaps modify the law," Mueller told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee.
The National Rifle Association says the current law is protecting Americans from terrorists while allowing citizens the freedom to own guns. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive, said under the law, if the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System gets a hit that someone applying for a gun permit is on a terror watch list, the government official who put that person on the list and other counterterrorism personnel are notified.
"They are specifically asked whether there's a good reason to deny this person buying a firearm," LaPierre told the Associated Press in an interview. "If there is, the person is denied. If there is not, the person is not denied."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who requested the audit, reacted with a call to undo a year-old law that requires the FBI to destroy records of applications to purchase guns within 24 hours of approval.
"It's aiding and abetting terrorists," Lautenberg said. "Lots of times you can't uncover the data you need in 24 hours."
Lautenberg introduced a bill Tuesday that would require federal authorities to keep a record of gun purchase applications by anyone on federal watch lists for 10 years.
LaPierre said Lautenberg was "misusing" the GAO audit to "manufacture support" for extending the amount of time gun applications are kept. The NRA supports the policy of maintaining records of gun buyer applicants for only 24 hours.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said current policies "benefit terrorists and benefit criminals."
The FBI said that it typically keeps some sort of record when someone it is investigating for ties to terrorism applies for a gun. The investigations are secret, although denying a terrorism suspect a gun permit could clue him in that he is on a list.
Lautenberg also wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and asked whether he thinks terrorism suspects should be barred from legal gun purchases.
Lautenberg did not directly call for barring such purchases, although he said: "You can't get on an airplane if you're a terrorist, but you can buy a gun. Which is worse?"
The watch list, called the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File, is the FBI's clearinghouse for thousands of people of interest to the government, from true terrorism suspects and associates to their relatives, neighbors or co-workers.
This year, the Homeland Security Department's civil rights division and inspector general opened inquiries into the treatment of more than 50 people, many of them Muslim Americans, who were detained while returning to the USA from Canada after their names turned up on the list.
None of the detainees was arrested, but some were held and interrogated about their activities for more than four hours. Those inquiries were continuing.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson and the Associated Press
