Treasury Makes Case for Gun Show Clampdown
Jun 21 1:48pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new Treasury Department report added ammunition on Wednesday to the Clinton administration's long-stalled effort to get Congress to clamp down on illegal trafficking of firearms at gun shows.
In the report sent to the White House, Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said that of the 1,500 firearms trafficking investigations from July 1996 and December 1998, 14 percent stemmed from trafficking at gun shows.
As part of a broader effort, the Clinton administration has been pushing unsuccessfully for background checks on all buyers at the popular gun shows, before they receive weapons.
Despite a spate of deadly shooting incidents nationwide, lawmakers have rejected the tougher anti-gun measures for more than a year, siding with industry lobbyists and the National Rifle Association, which claims such efforts would infringe on gun owners' rights.
The report said about 26,000 firearms were illegally ''diverted'' from legal sales channels at gun shows and turned up later in crimes ranging from killings to robberies.
Gun shows were ``a special case,'' it said, because licensed dealers as well as unlicensed dealers can sell guns at them but there is no legal obligation on the unlicensed dealers to conduct background checks.
After the report was issued, President Clinton again urged lawmakers to act.
``I urge the Congress to close the deadly gun show loophole once and for all and pass other stalled common sense gun measures without delay,'' Clinton said in a statement.
In a letter accompanying the report to the White House, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers cited law enforcement successes in convicting criminals who were located through the gun trafficking investigations.
He said more than 1,700 people were prosecuted for gun-law offenses in the 1996-1998 period, of whom more than 1,000 were found guilty and sentenced in federal, state and local courts.
``We are cracking down on gun traffickers and making it harder and harder for criminals to obtain guns illegally,'' Summers said.
But, he added, ``We must do more to close every trafficking channel, starting with closing the gun-show loophole and stiffening penalties for firearms dealers and large-scale traffickers.''
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Jun 21 1:48pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new Treasury Department report added ammunition on Wednesday to the Clinton administration's long-stalled effort to get Congress to clamp down on illegal trafficking of firearms at gun shows.
In the report sent to the White House, Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said that of the 1,500 firearms trafficking investigations from July 1996 and December 1998, 14 percent stemmed from trafficking at gun shows.
As part of a broader effort, the Clinton administration has been pushing unsuccessfully for background checks on all buyers at the popular gun shows, before they receive weapons.
Despite a spate of deadly shooting incidents nationwide, lawmakers have rejected the tougher anti-gun measures for more than a year, siding with industry lobbyists and the National Rifle Association, which claims such efforts would infringe on gun owners' rights.
The report said about 26,000 firearms were illegally ''diverted'' from legal sales channels at gun shows and turned up later in crimes ranging from killings to robberies.
Gun shows were ``a special case,'' it said, because licensed dealers as well as unlicensed dealers can sell guns at them but there is no legal obligation on the unlicensed dealers to conduct background checks.
After the report was issued, President Clinton again urged lawmakers to act.
``I urge the Congress to close the deadly gun show loophole once and for all and pass other stalled common sense gun measures without delay,'' Clinton said in a statement.
In a letter accompanying the report to the White House, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers cited law enforcement successes in convicting criminals who were located through the gun trafficking investigations.
He said more than 1,700 people were prosecuted for gun-law offenses in the 1996-1998 period, of whom more than 1,000 were found guilty and sentenced in federal, state and local courts.
``We are cracking down on gun traffickers and making it harder and harder for criminals to obtain guns illegally,'' Summers said.
But, he added, ``We must do more to close every trafficking channel, starting with closing the gun-show loophole and stiffening penalties for firearms dealers and large-scale traffickers.''
------------------
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