http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070300/opi_3442013.html
CRIME: Making loopholes
Gun-control advocates have found a new
"loophole."
The Brady law that was passed in 1993 prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from purchasing a gun.
The way gun dealers are supposed to determine whether someone is a felon is by using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The "instant" check takes three days -- only the government cannot do it in three days. The gun-control lobby wants to extend the time limit.
That's the "loophole."
The law was written specifically to allow three days. There is nothing defective about the law. The deficiency is in the mechanism to conduct the checks. How that becomes a loophole in the law is beyond comprehension.
It must be like the alleged loophole in gun shows, where the same laws apply that apply anywhere else.
There's another problem.
Because the government's three-day "instant" background check is a failure, more than 6,000 people bought guns in the last 18 months who were not supposed to have them. This includes criminals, those deemed mentally incompetent and those who have domestic orders of protection against them.
Most of the buyers were violent criminals, the FBI said. Yet, apparently, only 442 of those 6,000 guns were retrieved by the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms investigators, who have that duty.
The Brady bill, a first step toward prohibiting the private ownership of weapons, often is credited with preventing thousands of criminals from buying guns.
That does not mean the criminals are doing business without the tools of their trade, however. There is no accounting of back-alley sales or thefts that transfer legal ownership of guns to the illegal possession of criminals.
What is known from well-documented research is that thousands of times each year, people who lawfully own guns use them to protect themselves from criminals who have them, and use them, illegally.
To the gun-control lobby, that's just another loophole they hope to close.
© The Florida Times-Union
-- 30 --
Beat 'em up when they're wrong, pat 'em on the head when they're right.
Letters is at: http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.html
CRIME: Making loopholes
Gun-control advocates have found a new
"loophole."
The Brady law that was passed in 1993 prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from purchasing a gun.
The way gun dealers are supposed to determine whether someone is a felon is by using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The "instant" check takes three days -- only the government cannot do it in three days. The gun-control lobby wants to extend the time limit.
That's the "loophole."
The law was written specifically to allow three days. There is nothing defective about the law. The deficiency is in the mechanism to conduct the checks. How that becomes a loophole in the law is beyond comprehension.
It must be like the alleged loophole in gun shows, where the same laws apply that apply anywhere else.
There's another problem.
Because the government's three-day "instant" background check is a failure, more than 6,000 people bought guns in the last 18 months who were not supposed to have them. This includes criminals, those deemed mentally incompetent and those who have domestic orders of protection against them.
Most of the buyers were violent criminals, the FBI said. Yet, apparently, only 442 of those 6,000 guns were retrieved by the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms investigators, who have that duty.
The Brady bill, a first step toward prohibiting the private ownership of weapons, often is credited with preventing thousands of criminals from buying guns.
That does not mean the criminals are doing business without the tools of their trade, however. There is no accounting of back-alley sales or thefts that transfer legal ownership of guns to the illegal possession of criminals.
What is known from well-documented research is that thousands of times each year, people who lawfully own guns use them to protect themselves from criminals who have them, and use them, illegally.
To the gun-control lobby, that's just another loophole they hope to close.
© The Florida Times-Union
-- 30 --
Beat 'em up when they're wrong, pat 'em on the head when they're right.
Letters is at: http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.html