A new report that follows a Congressional investigation has concluded that we need to dramatically strengthen our gun control laws, with respect to known and suspected terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?ex=1110949200&en=52017921a1dea183&ei=5099&partner=TOPIXThe report found flaws in the system of background checks that are supposed to prevent criminals from buying guns. Instead, the Congressional investigation found, that 47 of 58 terror suspects were allowed to purchase guns during the nine month investigation. The terror suspects passed their criminal background checks, even though "The gun buyers came up as positive matches on a classified internal FBI watch list that includes thousands of terrorist suspects...". Those suspects belong to Islamic fundamentalist and "militia" style terrorists groups.
Senator Frank Lautenberg, "blamed what he called the Bush administration's 'twisted allegiances' to the National Rifle Association for the situation".
"The N.R.A. and gun rights supporters in Congress have fought - successfully, for the most part - to limit the use of the F.B.I.'s national gun-buying database as a tool for law enforcement investigators, saying the database would amount to an illegal registry of gun owners nationwide"
"After initial reluctance from Mr. Ashcroft over Second Amendment concerns, the Justice Department changed its policy in February 2004 to allow the F.B.I. to do more cross-checking between gun-buying records and terrorist intelligence."
The report, "also concluded that the FBI should keep closer track of the performance of state officials who handle gun background checks..."
It's not as if nobody saw this problem coming. In May 2003, my good friends, Senators Chuck Schumer and Frank Lautenberg concluded that "gaping holes in US gun laws could allow terrorists to easily obtain assault weapons, explosives, and other kinds of dangerous arms".
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR01728.html "With a new Congressional report being released today (2003) showing that holes in US gun laws could let terrorists easily acquire assault weapons and other guns, US Senators Frank Lautenberg and Charles Schumer urged speedy passage of legislation to tighten the FBI's background check system. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the federal database of individuals who cannot legally own firearms, was established in 1994 to ensure that firearms purchasers are first subject to a thorough background check."
"In addition, the report found that federal background checks on prospective gun buyers do not use 'terrorist watch' lists used at border crossings and airports."
"According to Americans For Gun Safety (AGS), terrorist groups have repeatedly tried to acquire guns. In September 2001, just two weeks after the terrorist attacks, a Lebanese terrorist named Ali Boumelhem was caught by federal authorities after buying firearms and spare parts at several Michigan gun shows. Boumelhem, a member of Hezbollah, had been observed buying an assault rifle from a private seller at the gun show, which, because of a loophole in the Brady Act, meant that the seller was not required to perform a background check. AGS found several more instances of terrorists shopping at gun shows, including suspected al Qaeda operatives in Texas and Florida and a known IRA gun-runner in Florida.
Back in 2003, Senator Schumer went on to say, "Washington has now been warned three times about ways terrorists can exploit our loopholes to get guns. The White House and Congress are ignoring this at their peril"
I guess they've been warned FOUR times now, eh?
Before the 2003 Congressional report, Senator Schumer had introduced legislation in 2002 to try an correct the problem of the inefficiencies in the background check system. Schumer's legislation was introduced in response to a shooting in a New York church by a man who walked into a firearm shop and was allowed to purchase a gun, even though he had a history of mental health problems and had even been admitted to Bellevue Hospital and Nassau University Medical Center on at least two occasions. In addition, the shooter's mother had a restraining order issued against her son. None of those items turned up on his background check, so he was allowed to purchase the gun.
It appears that al Qaeda and the militia aren't the only terrorists who exploit America's lax gun control laws, in order to arm their insurrections:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Weapons/Guns_Opa_Locka.html"A few years ago, the government of Colombia asked the United States to trace nearly fifty MAK-90 rifles it had seized from the National Liberation Army, or ELN. It turned out these rifles had been obtained by Colombian gun traffickers after being purchased at retail stores in the Miami area. The ELN is on the State Department's foreign terror watch list. Yet, like many other underground armies around the world, it buys its weapons in one of the world's freest arms markets. "The United States has for many years been a warehouse, a shopping center, if you will, for firearms," says retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (AFT) resident agent in charge Daniel McBride, "because of the ease of acquisition, not just in the state of Florida but typically throughout the United States. We are a very easy place from which to obtain firearms for transshipment back home."
Law enforcement officials describe the United States as a one-stop shop for the guns sought by terrorists, mercenaries and international criminals of all stripes. And September 11 has not changed that in any significant way. In fact, Attorney General John Ashcroft has refused to permit the use of gun purchase records to track crimes, a practice that the FBI had previously used and that conceivably could help to identify terrorists. Nor did Ashcroft propose closing gun loopholes as part of the USA Patriot Act. The result of the lax US system, says McBride, is "an ongoing cycle" in which weapons bought here end up fueling violence abroad, and in which America is regarded as the firearms "shopping center for the world."
Apparently the NRA doesn't like the proposed changes to the background check laws.
http://ap.ardmoreite.com/pstories/us/20050308/2867390.shtml"But the National Rifle Association says the law IS protecting Americans from terrorists while allowing citizens the freedom to own guns. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive, said under current law, if the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) 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 — along with other counterterrorism personnel — are notified."
Apparently Wayne didn't read the Congressional reports. Two of them concluded that the background check system was inefficient and was allowing suspected terrorists to buy firearms. That doesn't jibe with Wayne's claim that the law "is protecting Americans from terrorists". I also think Wayne was wrong when he tried to claim that everything was hunky-dory when he basically said, "If they appear on the list, then personnel are notified". He completely ignored the fact that the Congressional investigation concluded that the suspected terrorists were NOT appearing in the NICS database.
I would like to appeal to the NRA to select a spokesperson who will actually respond to the issues that have been raised, rather than take his usual knee-jerk "It's a bad idea" reaction to any issue related to gun control. I know that Wayne doesn't want to hear the results of the Congressional study, but does he have to make it so completely obvious that he didn't even read the results of the study?
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