U.S. threatens to sue state for using gun database

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De FBI en de Federal Justice Department (van Ashcroft, die meneer die
van mening is dat Frankrijk en Duitsland bij oud-Europa horen) letten
de laatste tijd ook op de belangen van de leden van de NRA (National
Rifle Association), oftewel de wapenfabrikanten.

Zij willen niet dat politieambtenaren van de 51 staten in de VS
controleren of mensen die wapens willen kopen in 'hun' staat, dat in
andere staten om de een of andere reden niet mogen.
California gaat zelfs verder met de controle. Ze gaan van elke klant
die in Calfornia geweigerd is om een wapen te kopen, na of die in
andere staten wapens heeft gekocht, en willen dan die wapens
ingeleverd hebben. Ook dat mag niet van Ashcroft!

Bij nader inzien eigenlijk wel consistent. Saddam mocht immers ook in
de VS blijven kopen toen hij de bevolking van Iran neerknalde en met
mosterdgas e.d. aanviel. (Trouw 24-2-2003 'Saddam aarzelt niet om
massavernietigingswapens in te zetten, zelfs tegen zijn eigen
bevolking', is een favoriet Amerikaans argument vóór oorlog tegen het
Iraakse bewind. Maar toen Saddam Hoessein zijn gif over Iraanse
soldaten en de Koerdische bevolking strooide, wist hij de VS aan zijn
zijde. Tientallen militaire experts stonden hem bij, zo onthulden
Amerikaanse kranten recentelijk.')

http://sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/02/28/MN40941.DTL

U.S. threatens to sue state for using gun database
Justice Dept. wants only dealers, not cops, to have access

Sacramento -- The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to
criminally prosecute California's top firearms official over the
state's continued use of a federal databank to hunt down illegal gun
users, The Chronicle has learned.

The threat marks a significant escalation in the war between
California law enforcement and U.S. officials over gun control and
background checks. State officials said that until John Ashcroft
became U.S. attorney general in 2001, California's use of the
databank was not questioned.

Federal authorities believe the list of convicted felons, drug
dealers, suspected terrorists, spouse beaters, illegal immigrants and
others should only be used to help gun dealers determine if someone
is allowed to buy a gun, not police investigating other gun-control
violations.

Gun-control advocates say it's part of a pattern.

"At a time when Ashcroft is pushing for maximum police powers in
almost all areas of our lives, the one exception is guns," said Luis
Tolley, Western regional director with the Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence. "They are going in the opposite direction."

Now, in an unprecedented action, the chief of California's firearms
division says he was threatened with federal action for a criminal
violation if California continues to use the federal database to
search for illegal gun users who violated the law in other states.

"We understood it as a potential criminal action," said Randy Rossi,
firearms chief for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, "and our
response back to them was we understand what you are saying and we
think public safety is paramount and you take whatever step is
necessary."

[knip]

California has its own databank of people prohibited from owning
guns. But law enforcement also checks NICS to see if a suspect has
legal problems in other states. Lockyer's office checks the NICS
nationwide system about 5,000 times a year on behalf of police,
sheriffs and their own investigators

A suspect may be clear in California but convicted of offenses in
another state or federal court, but law enforcement would not find
that out in many cases, gun-control advocates and state officials
fear.

"There needs to be one central depository of felonies, of people who
are prohibited, the mentally disturbed and the like," said Tolley
with the Brady Campaign.

California officials believe Ashcroft and the FBI are intent on
scuttling a new state law that allows Lockyer to investigate people
who may illegally have large stores of guns that are being
undetected.

The so-called armed and prohibited law targets people recently
rejected for gun ownership during a background check because they
have a criminal record or arrest.

Rather than stopping there, Lockyer's office is using a newly created
state database and three separate federal databases to look for
past gun purchases in other states -- and then going after those
guns.

Ashcroft's office has told Lockyer that all three federal databases --
 NICS, the National Crime Information Center and the Interstate
Identification Index -- are off-limits to his agents if they are
using them for the armed and prohibited program, state officials
said.

For regular criminal background checks outside of the armed and
prohibited program, federal authorities are allowing California
access
to two of the databases. But they want to deny Lockyer's office
access to NICS, unless the state is making a background check for a
gun dealer or pawn shop.
[knip]
Georgia officials say they also have been threatened by federal
authorities over interpretation of U.S. law concerning criminal
background checks. Georgia was denying gun purchases to people
arrested for crimes but not charged or convicted.

In a letter last year to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the FBI
warned that the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act and
Georgia law do not allow "naked arrests" without an indictment or
conviction to be used to deny a gun purchase. The FBI said it was
"very interested in the status of any corrective action."

Georgia complied with the FBI, and the number of firearms denied to
suspected felons dropped significantly. The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution estimated that every day an average of 17 or 18 people
facing felony charges now are given permission to buy a gun in
Georgia.

"We viewed it as a threat," John Bankhead, spokesman for the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation, said about the FBI's letter. "We had done
this for six years without an issue until the new administration came
in, and they pulled this on us."

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