WorldNetDaily Exclusive - LEAA Blasts Reno

STORY

Thursday, March 23, 2000


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ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Police group blasts Reno
Accused of violating Brady law, maintaining firearms records

by Jon E. Dougherty


A national law enforcement group is accusing Attorney General Janet Reno of violating the "Brady Law," which requires background checks on every person seeking to purchase a handgun and mandates a five-day waiting period before the sale is approved.
Reno is "violating key provisions of federal law" with actions that "impose tremendous potential liability on federal law enforcement officers," according to the Law Enforcement Alliance of America. Furthermore, LEAA said, Reno's actions increase that liability "by establishing illegal dossier-making practices against law-abiding gun owners, and invading the privacy of Americans."

The suit, originally filed in 1998, received a hearing in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of appeals on Friday, but LEAA spokesman Carl Mica told WorldNetDaily no decision had come yet. The group anticipates court action within 60 days.

The Alliance is the nation's largest nonprofit coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and citizens, with a membership of about 65,000 members and supporters.

Specifically, the organization is alleging that the FBI is illegally keeping records on firearms transactions generated by the National Instant Check System (NICS), according to LEAA Executive Director James J. Fotis, prompting his organization to join "a lawsuit to stop this blatant violation of federal law."

According to Fotis, LEAA decided to join the suit, in part, because of its belief that the Department of Justice is forcing law enforcement agents to violate federal law pertaining to the proper implementation and use of data collected by the Bureau's NICS system.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act stipulates in Section 103(i) that "No department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States may ... use the system established under this section to establish any system for the registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions or dispositions, except with respect to persons, prohibited by section 922 (g) or (n) of title 18."

"Obviously, Janet Reno is in clear violation of the law by storing data on lawful gun buyers, and she is forcing law enforcement agents to be her pawns, thereby also breaking the law," Fotis told WorldNetDaily.

Claiming "no one is above the law," Fotis said Reno's motivations for allegedly keeping gun registration information was "purely political," referring to the administration's staunch pro-gun control stance.

"The aim of this lawsuit is to protect our members -- and the interests of all law enforcement -- from the unlawful activity brought on by Reno's defiance of federal law," Fotis said.

The NICS system, which is administered by the Bureau in offices located in Clarksburg, West Virginia, is used by firearms dealers and others to obtain real-time criminal history information about prospective gun buyers. However, some gun-rights organizations have complained about how often the system goes "down" -- or offline -- sometimes for hours, which prevents dealers from selling firearms and may cause them to lose money.

Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman, told WorldNetDaily that while the FBI retains NICS records "very briefly," the purpose is benign and all records are eventually expunged from the system.

"We keep records on file for about 60 or 90 days," Bresson said, "for auditing purposes, and to make sure there are no abuses of the system." The reason, he said, is because local gun dealers will sometimes submit bogus firearm sales requests to see whether or not a friend or relative has criminal information on file with the agency.

Mica said he had "not heard" whether or not the FBI's 60 to 90 day figure was accurate, but added, "Clearly, they are holding the records and just as clearly that is against the law."

Keeping files on hand to avoid misuse of the system "is appropriate," Bresson countered, because submitting false requests to NICS "is an inappropriate, if not illegal, use of the system." He added that the FBI had shortened the length of time the agency had previously kept records "from about six months down to two or three months."

Of the LEAA suit, Bresson said the issue of illegal database registries has "come up before."

Indeed, said Fotis, "Congress has voted on this issue two times" before, but "Reno is (still) trying to thwart congressional action and circumvent the law.

"LEAA's lawsuit will help protect federal law enforcement agents who are vulnerable to liability if they are compelled to carry out Attorney General Reno's illegal mandates," the director said.

Mica told WorldNetDaily that Congress specifically passed the Brady Law forbidding federal agencies from collecting firearms registration records.

"That's one of the points of this suit," he said, "to prevent agencies from doing that. The law is pretty straightforward and clear, despite their intentions."




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Slowpoke Rodrigo...he pack a gon...

Vote for the Neal Knox 13
 
I think this is great. The more groups that reconize this is wrong the better our position is. It seems the tide is finally turning but we must continue to push writing letters to our congress criters and not let up on them and of course this includes letters of encouragement.
 
Slowpoke, this has to be wrong.

I heard Joe Lockhart, the White House guy, say that ALL the Law Enforcement Organizations were with Clinton on this stuff. (generally speaking). Did I mis-understand? Am I looking at the wrong info and not making the right connections? Would a man from the White House, working for Bill and Hill, lie?
 
Bill and Hill & company lie?
Hell they can't remember the truth so what else can they do?
They all have to be devoid of a conscience and have no fear in God or his existence.

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"Keep shootin till they quit floppin"
The Wife 2/2000
 
LEAA is an excellent organizations that fills a niche in the pro-gun movement that no other organization addresses. Check their website (www.leaa.org). I am a member of LEAA and encourage others to join and support this group.
 
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