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Hot Air and Lame Duck Proposals
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"...the Clinton-Gore Justice Department uses
only selected data in carefully crafted press releases and
congressional inquiries in attempts to both advance its policies
and deflect valid criticisms..." |
The lame duck... |
...and the hot air! |
True to form, and unable to pass up possibly his final chance to
engage in anti-gun grandstanding, President Clinton marked the
seventh anniversary of the signing of the Brady Act on Thursday,
November 30, with a call to further expand the rarely-enforced
federal law.
With only 50 days remaining in the Clinton-Gore Administration’s
orchestrated 8-year assault on law-abiding gun owners, Clinton
called on Attorney General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary
Lawrence Summers to launch new efforts to "strengthen
enforcement" of selected provisions within the Brady Act and
National Instant Criminal [Background] Check System (NICS).
Mired
in the waning days of his presidency, and still grasping to
secure a legacy, Clinton has tossed out some last-minute
proposals centered mainly on the concept of using new technology
to develop a national notification system to more effectively
provide information to state and local law enforcement officials
about persons who attempted to illegally purchase firearms and
were denied via NICS checks.
Under the current procedure, state and local law enforcement are
notified of denied sales to fugitives, felons, and persons under
domestic violence restraining orders. The thrust of Clinton’s
request of DOJ, FBI and the Treasury Department is that state and
local law enforcement be provided more information more quickly
about NICS denials of other categories beyond the above mentioned
categories of prohibited purchasers.
As a federal law, of course, the Brady Act is under federal
jurisdiction, but neither procedure dedicates federal personnel
to its enforcement. In claiming that the Brady Act "has now
stopped more than 611,000 felons, fugitives and domestic abusers
from buying guns," the most anti-gun chief executive in the
history of our nation failed to address the shameful fact that
his Administration has failed miserably to prosecute violent
armed felons.
Further casting a cloud of doubt over the president’s touting of
Brady Act successes is his Administration’s ongoing denial to
news organizations and the general public of access to data
showing how it has enforced the nation’s firearms laws. Such
information has routinely been made available in past
administrations, yet the Clinton-Gore Justice Department uses
only selected data in carefully crafted press releases and
congressional inquiries in attempts to both advance its policies
and deflect valid criticisms. If the complete data support his
Administration’s claims, why have the numbers been hidden from
our nation’s news organizations and the general public?
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