NRA To AGS --
Welcome To The Debate
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"...We don't need gun control,
we need criminal control..." |
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-- South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon (R) |
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S.C. Atty. Gen.
Charlie Condon |
Ohio Atty. Gen.
Betty Montgomery |
For nearly 15 years, NRA has been raising issues relating to
deficiencies in the nation's criminal record-keeping system. This issue
took on even more relevance after the Brady Act's five-day waiting
period, "sunsetted" into the
NRA-backed instant check system in 1998.
This week, Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) released a
"report" parroting
much of NRA's positions for the past decade and a half.
NRA chief lobbyist, James Baker, noted during congressional testimony
on
S. 466, "The Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1987,"
"with only a
'name check' being conducted, all that can be determined is whether a
person with that name has a criminal history. There is no way to verify
that the person in front of you is who he or she purports to be."
Identification fraud continues to be a national problem, revealed most
recently on September 11.
Speaking specifically to the AGS "study," Joe Case, spokesman for
Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, said, "This group tries to paint the
picture that nothing's being done, especially on the accuracy of the
automated data system. That's just absolutely false." These comments
were echoed by South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon (R), who
noted, "It's false information. "I think we're doing a good job in
terms of checking people appropriately. ... We don't need gun control,
we need criminal control."
It's rather duplicitous for AGS to make the claims it cites in its own
"study" given the fact that their senior staffers were in strategic
government positions to assure the integrity of the National Instant
Check System (NICS) during its inception.
- Matt Bennett was a Clinton
White House political aide;
- Jim Kessler, AGS Legislative Director, was
gun adviser to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y).; and
- AGS President
Jonathan Cowan, was Chief of Staff to self-appointed gun czar Andrew
Cuomo.
While noteworthy, but not surprising, Kessler's former boss,
Senator Schumer, has not advocated NICS improvements, or taken any steps
to oversee its effective implementation, but has only attempted to
exploit NICS to establish national registration.
NRA believes, and has said all along, that it is vital that the NICS
database be accurate and comprehensive. It is also important to make
sure the NICS database isn't bogged
down with irrelevant data. The integrity of the database has
to be precise for the purpose for which it was built -- that is, any gun
sale disqualification should be based solely on accurate and complete
disqualifying information.
NRA has long supported state efforts to improve and automate records
necessary for NICS and has supported federal appropriations for that
purpose, but would emphasize that these expenditures be thoroughly
audited to ensure that they are properly spent. NRA believes further
that congressional action would be helpful in attempting to bring
together law enforcement and the mental health community in reaching
agreement to supply disqualifying mental health records. And we support
the concept that non-citizens in America on tourist, student, or
non-immigrant visas have their visa status accessible by NICS to
preclude gun purchases by these ineligible individuals.
Related Stories...
More About the National Instant Check System
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