SARAH BRADY IS ON THE WAR PATH AGAIN!! USA TODAY FULL PAGE AD!
Sarah Brady on Gun Bill: 'Special Registrants' -- A Bad Idea Returns
U.S. Newswire 13 Sep 11:58
To: National Desk
Contact: http://www.handguncontrol.org
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by Handgun Control Inc.:
Echoing today's full-page ad in USA Today, Sarah Brady called upon
mothers of America to urge House and Senate conferees on the juvenile
justice bill (HR 1501) to adopt "the strictest possible regulation of
gun shows." A gun show, Brady said, "should be regulated as if the
safety of our children and our community depends upon it. Because
experience demonstrates that it does."
Brady attacked the gun show loophole as "a double-barreled threat
to public safety. Where else can children and criminals readily buy a
gun without a background check and without a paper trail? When a gun
is sold at a gun store, there is a background check and a traceable
record of the transaction. When a gun is sold by an unlicensed dealer
at a gun show, it's just cash and carry. It's no coincidence that
guns purchased in many of the recent shootings have been linked to
gun show transactions. It's almost impossible to trace a gun
purchased at a gun show from an unlicensed dealer. An unregulated gun
show sale is a criminal's best friend."
All four guns used in the Littleton shooting were sold at gun
shows, but despite a massive effort by federal and local law
enforcement, it still took almost a week to identify the sellers of
the weapons. It took two weeks, in fact, to identify the seller of
the TEC-9 assault pistol. Moreover, police report that the gun used
by alleged gunman Buford Furrow to shoot a postal worker in Los
Angeles and wound four children at a Jewish Community Center was sold
at a gun show in Washington State.
Brady strongly urged the conferees to reject the idea of creating
a whole new class of 'special registrants' to conduct background
checks at gun shows. "All gun show sales should be conducted by
licensed dealers who know all the applicable laws of the state."
Brady described the special registrant approach, as originally
offered in the Senate by NRA board member Larry Craig, and later
rejected by the full Senate, as "a regulatory monster created by the
gun lobby for the gun lobby."
Brady said that special registrants, having no authority to
initiate background checks except at gun shows, would be "less
qualified and less accountable." Gun dealers are required to maintain
a place of business, while special registrants could travel from gun
show to gun show without any permanent place of business. As
originally proposed and rejected in the Senate and the House, the
guns sold through special registrants would be virtually untraceable.
Registrants would not be required to maintain records to identify
which registrant checked which gun transaction. This would mean, as
Mrs. Brady said, "that law enforcement won't know where to begin when
tracing a crime gun. At best, it would take precious days or weeks
to trace the weapons sold through special registrants."
Brady also called upon Congress to close other loopholes that make
it easy for children and criminals to obtain guns. "It's not just the
gun show loophole that needs to be closed," Brady said. "An
eighteen-year old child cannot buy a handgun at a gun store, but they
can buy one at a gun show from an unlicensed dealer or a total
stranger." During the House debate on the juvenile justice
legislation this past June, Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde
joined the House Speaker in endorsing a ban on the private sale of
handguns to juveniles under the age of 21, but the issue was later
dropped without a House vote.
Brady today called upon "concerned parents to make their voices
heard in Congress." Handgun Control ran a full page ad in USA Today
urging mothers everywhere to call Congress and demand stricter gun
laws. "It's time, " Brady said, "for mothers to take the lead in
stopping gun violence."
------
Handgun Control, chaired by Sarah Brady, is the nation's largest
citizens' gun control lobbying organization. Based in Washington,
D.C., HCI works to enact stronger federal, state and local gun
control laws, but does not seek to ban handguns. Founded in 1974,
HCI has more than 400,000 members nationwide and works with local
groups around the country to enact and protect reasonable gun control
laws. More information about HCI and its affiliated organization, the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, can be found on the website at www.handguncontrol.org.
------
GUN SHOWS: THE CASE OF THE DOUBLE-BARRELED LOOPHOLE
Criminals love gun shows for two alarmingly good reasons:
1) They can buy an unlimited number of guns from private sellers,
cash-and-carry, without passing any kind of background check, AND
2) The unlicensed vendor who sells them their guns isn't required
to keep a single written record of the sale. As a result, even if a
gun that they use in a crime is found, its serial number will be
useless to police trying to trace the person who bought it. And
without the ability to establish a key link from the sale to the
shooter, law enforcement simply cannot make a case for prosecution.
Today, in far too many situations, the "double barrels" of the gun
show loophole assures that it's "no trace, no case" and criminals who
could be caught remain at large. Consider these recent, high-profile
examples of the problem:
-- On Aug. 10, 1999, Buford Furrow killed a United States mail
carrier and opened fire on a Jewish Community Center's day camp,
wounding a grandmother and four children. The Uzi reached Furrow
through a gun show in Washington state. If Furrow hadn't surrendered,
police would have had no way of tracing the Uzi used to him. Once a
gun leaves the hands of the last licensed dealer who sold it,
authorities have no way to use its serial number to trace it to
someone who's later bought the gun privately, as at a gun show.
-- On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold mounted a
murderous assault on Columbine High School killing a teacher and
twelve of their classmates before shooting themselves. They used a
TEC-DC9 assault pistol, Hi-Point Carbine and two sawed-off shotguns
in their rampage. All three long guns were bought for the killers at
a gun show by a friend who didn't know their intent. They got the
assault pistol from a 22 year-old who had himself bought it privately
at the same gun show. If authorities had had to find Klebold and
Harris based on weapons left at the scene, the serial numbers on
their guns simply would have been useless. As it is, the only reason
that authorities know how the weapons came into their hands is
because the shooters' friend and the 22 year-old assault weapon
seller came forward voluntarily.
-- Between 1989 and 1992, Thomas Dillon coldly shot five people to
death in separate assaults with different weapons that he bought and
then frequently sold at gun shows to cover his tracks. Dillon knew
that the law didn't (and still doesn't) require that private buyers
and sellers at gun shows keep sales records of any kind. That's how
he eluded a team of federal and state agents dedicated to his
capture. They ultimately convicted Dillon not on the basis of any gun
trace linking him to a murder weapon, but because a gun show seller
who bought one such gun from Dillon on the day of his fifth killing
recognized his picture in a local newspaper after Dillon's arrest on
charges of purchasing an illegal silencer. Luck, dogged police work,
and a good Samaritan with a sharp memory prevented a sixth murder
despite gun laws that actually hampered the investigation.
Every day, in every state in the nation, criminals maim and kill
with untraceable guns, drop them at the scene, and then vanish
without fear that the serial numbers on their weapons will permit
police to track them down.
IF it reaches the President, the Senate's common sense gun show
provisions will plug BOTH barrels of the gun show loophole:
1) Nobody will be able to buy a gun at a gun show legally without
passing a background check; AND
2) For the first time, Federal authorities will be allowed to
establish a serial number reporting system that enables police to
trace crime guns back to the vendors who sold them -- licensed or not
-- as part of their efforts to catch violent criminals and return
stolen guns to their owners.
BUT, paranoia-driven political compromise could well keep both key
parts of the Senate's sensible bill from being signed into law:
Almost all Americans (90 percent in the latest ABC/Washington Post
poll of 8/30/99) now favor requiring that background checks at gun
shows be mandatory regardless of whether the seller is a federally
licensed gun dealer or a private vendor -- and there are hopeful
signs that Congressional leaders may heed this call. With continued
public pressure, the background check "barrel" of the gun show
loophole could be plugged.
Congressional leaders are still balking, however, at plugging the
"second barrel" of the gun show loophole by accepting the Senate's
modest additional proposals to facilitate the tracing of crime guns.
The Senate bill would do that by: a) requiring that licensed
dealers at gun shows do the required background checks for the
customers of unlicensed sellers, and b) requiring the dealer to file
a "report of the transfer" to the Secretary of the Treasury that
could include the serial number of each gun transferred. Not
purchaser names and addresses -- only serial numbers. In fact, the
Senate's bill expressly prohibits the dealer report from including
"the name or other identifying information relating to any person
involved in the transfer who is not licensed" to sell guns."
The NRA's hysterical claims notwithstanding, the Senate bill does
not, and legally cannot, create a national gun owner registry. What
it does do is give law enforcement authorities quick and reliable
access to information about who sold a gun so that they can get the
criminals who use them off of our streets. Without a serial number
that can be traced to a manufacturer, and a system that allows the
manufacturer to identify a gun seller, police and the public will
continue to be victims of the second barrel of the gun show loophole
and the end result will continue to be "No Trace, No Case."
------
Three quarters of Americans have no problem with requiring that
the name and address of all gun owners be on file with state or
federal authorities (according to an ABC/Washington Post poll of
8/30/99).
-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
09/13 11:58
Joe
http://www.netbabbler.com/goto/index.php3?forumid=12204
Joe's Second Amendment Message Board
Sarah Brady on Gun Bill: 'Special Registrants' -- A Bad Idea Returns
U.S. Newswire 13 Sep 11:58
To: National Desk
Contact: http://www.handguncontrol.org
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by Handgun Control Inc.:
Echoing today's full-page ad in USA Today, Sarah Brady called upon
mothers of America to urge House and Senate conferees on the juvenile
justice bill (HR 1501) to adopt "the strictest possible regulation of
gun shows." A gun show, Brady said, "should be regulated as if the
safety of our children and our community depends upon it. Because
experience demonstrates that it does."
Brady attacked the gun show loophole as "a double-barreled threat
to public safety. Where else can children and criminals readily buy a
gun without a background check and without a paper trail? When a gun
is sold at a gun store, there is a background check and a traceable
record of the transaction. When a gun is sold by an unlicensed dealer
at a gun show, it's just cash and carry. It's no coincidence that
guns purchased in many of the recent shootings have been linked to
gun show transactions. It's almost impossible to trace a gun
purchased at a gun show from an unlicensed dealer. An unregulated gun
show sale is a criminal's best friend."
All four guns used in the Littleton shooting were sold at gun
shows, but despite a massive effort by federal and local law
enforcement, it still took almost a week to identify the sellers of
the weapons. It took two weeks, in fact, to identify the seller of
the TEC-9 assault pistol. Moreover, police report that the gun used
by alleged gunman Buford Furrow to shoot a postal worker in Los
Angeles and wound four children at a Jewish Community Center was sold
at a gun show in Washington State.
Brady strongly urged the conferees to reject the idea of creating
a whole new class of 'special registrants' to conduct background
checks at gun shows. "All gun show sales should be conducted by
licensed dealers who know all the applicable laws of the state."
Brady described the special registrant approach, as originally
offered in the Senate by NRA board member Larry Craig, and later
rejected by the full Senate, as "a regulatory monster created by the
gun lobby for the gun lobby."
Brady said that special registrants, having no authority to
initiate background checks except at gun shows, would be "less
qualified and less accountable." Gun dealers are required to maintain
a place of business, while special registrants could travel from gun
show to gun show without any permanent place of business. As
originally proposed and rejected in the Senate and the House, the
guns sold through special registrants would be virtually untraceable.
Registrants would not be required to maintain records to identify
which registrant checked which gun transaction. This would mean, as
Mrs. Brady said, "that law enforcement won't know where to begin when
tracing a crime gun. At best, it would take precious days or weeks
to trace the weapons sold through special registrants."
Brady also called upon Congress to close other loopholes that make
it easy for children and criminals to obtain guns. "It's not just the
gun show loophole that needs to be closed," Brady said. "An
eighteen-year old child cannot buy a handgun at a gun store, but they
can buy one at a gun show from an unlicensed dealer or a total
stranger." During the House debate on the juvenile justice
legislation this past June, Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde
joined the House Speaker in endorsing a ban on the private sale of
handguns to juveniles under the age of 21, but the issue was later
dropped without a House vote.
Brady today called upon "concerned parents to make their voices
heard in Congress." Handgun Control ran a full page ad in USA Today
urging mothers everywhere to call Congress and demand stricter gun
laws. "It's time, " Brady said, "for mothers to take the lead in
stopping gun violence."
------
Handgun Control, chaired by Sarah Brady, is the nation's largest
citizens' gun control lobbying organization. Based in Washington,
D.C., HCI works to enact stronger federal, state and local gun
control laws, but does not seek to ban handguns. Founded in 1974,
HCI has more than 400,000 members nationwide and works with local
groups around the country to enact and protect reasonable gun control
laws. More information about HCI and its affiliated organization, the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, can be found on the website at www.handguncontrol.org.
------
GUN SHOWS: THE CASE OF THE DOUBLE-BARRELED LOOPHOLE
Criminals love gun shows for two alarmingly good reasons:
1) They can buy an unlimited number of guns from private sellers,
cash-and-carry, without passing any kind of background check, AND
2) The unlicensed vendor who sells them their guns isn't required
to keep a single written record of the sale. As a result, even if a
gun that they use in a crime is found, its serial number will be
useless to police trying to trace the person who bought it. And
without the ability to establish a key link from the sale to the
shooter, law enforcement simply cannot make a case for prosecution.
Today, in far too many situations, the "double barrels" of the gun
show loophole assures that it's "no trace, no case" and criminals who
could be caught remain at large. Consider these recent, high-profile
examples of the problem:
-- On Aug. 10, 1999, Buford Furrow killed a United States mail
carrier and opened fire on a Jewish Community Center's day camp,
wounding a grandmother and four children. The Uzi reached Furrow
through a gun show in Washington state. If Furrow hadn't surrendered,
police would have had no way of tracing the Uzi used to him. Once a
gun leaves the hands of the last licensed dealer who sold it,
authorities have no way to use its serial number to trace it to
someone who's later bought the gun privately, as at a gun show.
-- On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold mounted a
murderous assault on Columbine High School killing a teacher and
twelve of their classmates before shooting themselves. They used a
TEC-DC9 assault pistol, Hi-Point Carbine and two sawed-off shotguns
in their rampage. All three long guns were bought for the killers at
a gun show by a friend who didn't know their intent. They got the
assault pistol from a 22 year-old who had himself bought it privately
at the same gun show. If authorities had had to find Klebold and
Harris based on weapons left at the scene, the serial numbers on
their guns simply would have been useless. As it is, the only reason
that authorities know how the weapons came into their hands is
because the shooters' friend and the 22 year-old assault weapon
seller came forward voluntarily.
-- Between 1989 and 1992, Thomas Dillon coldly shot five people to
death in separate assaults with different weapons that he bought and
then frequently sold at gun shows to cover his tracks. Dillon knew
that the law didn't (and still doesn't) require that private buyers
and sellers at gun shows keep sales records of any kind. That's how
he eluded a team of federal and state agents dedicated to his
capture. They ultimately convicted Dillon not on the basis of any gun
trace linking him to a murder weapon, but because a gun show seller
who bought one such gun from Dillon on the day of his fifth killing
recognized his picture in a local newspaper after Dillon's arrest on
charges of purchasing an illegal silencer. Luck, dogged police work,
and a good Samaritan with a sharp memory prevented a sixth murder
despite gun laws that actually hampered the investigation.
Every day, in every state in the nation, criminals maim and kill
with untraceable guns, drop them at the scene, and then vanish
without fear that the serial numbers on their weapons will permit
police to track them down.
IF it reaches the President, the Senate's common sense gun show
provisions will plug BOTH barrels of the gun show loophole:
1) Nobody will be able to buy a gun at a gun show legally without
passing a background check; AND
2) For the first time, Federal authorities will be allowed to
establish a serial number reporting system that enables police to
trace crime guns back to the vendors who sold them -- licensed or not
-- as part of their efforts to catch violent criminals and return
stolen guns to their owners.
BUT, paranoia-driven political compromise could well keep both key
parts of the Senate's sensible bill from being signed into law:
Almost all Americans (90 percent in the latest ABC/Washington Post
poll of 8/30/99) now favor requiring that background checks at gun
shows be mandatory regardless of whether the seller is a federally
licensed gun dealer or a private vendor -- and there are hopeful
signs that Congressional leaders may heed this call. With continued
public pressure, the background check "barrel" of the gun show
loophole could be plugged.
Congressional leaders are still balking, however, at plugging the
"second barrel" of the gun show loophole by accepting the Senate's
modest additional proposals to facilitate the tracing of crime guns.
The Senate bill would do that by: a) requiring that licensed
dealers at gun shows do the required background checks for the
customers of unlicensed sellers, and b) requiring the dealer to file
a "report of the transfer" to the Secretary of the Treasury that
could include the serial number of each gun transferred. Not
purchaser names and addresses -- only serial numbers. In fact, the
Senate's bill expressly prohibits the dealer report from including
"the name or other identifying information relating to any person
involved in the transfer who is not licensed" to sell guns."
The NRA's hysterical claims notwithstanding, the Senate bill does
not, and legally cannot, create a national gun owner registry. What
it does do is give law enforcement authorities quick and reliable
access to information about who sold a gun so that they can get the
criminals who use them off of our streets. Without a serial number
that can be traced to a manufacturer, and a system that allows the
manufacturer to identify a gun seller, police and the public will
continue to be victims of the second barrel of the gun show loophole
and the end result will continue to be "No Trace, No Case."
------
Three quarters of Americans have no problem with requiring that
the name and address of all gun owners be on file with state or
federal authorities (according to an ABC/Washington Post poll of
8/30/99).
-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
09/13 11:58
Joe
http://www.netbabbler.com/goto/index.php3?forumid=12204
Joe's Second Amendment Message Board
