Details

• Sponsor - Lautenberg
• Proposed - March 9, 2005
• Congressional Record Link - S.578
• Amends - General- Section 922(t) of title 18, United States Code
• Amendments - None.
• Vote - None yet.
• Results - No change in law.

Status

March 9, 2005 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Synopsis

This is relatively short, so here is the meat, directly from the Congressional Record:

`(7) If the national criminal background check system indicates that a person attempting to purchase a firearm or applying for a State permit to possess, acquire, or carry a firearm is identified as a known or suspected member of a terrorist organization in records maintained by the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security, including the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File, or records maintained by the Intelligence Community, including records maintained under section 343 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 (50 U.S.C. 404n-2)--

`(A) all information related to the prospective transaction shall automatically and immediately be transmitted to the appropriate Federal and State counterterrorism officials, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

`(B) the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall coordinate the response to such an event; and

`(C) all records generated in the course of the check of the national criminal background check system, including the ATF Form 4473, that are obtained by Federal and State officials shall be retained for a minimum of 10 years.'.

Analysis

The bill was a result of a January 2005 GAO report on this problem. The FBI has not been standing still with regard to what was documented.

• Already the FBI runs every NICS check against the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization (VGTOF) file.
• Each hit is reported to FBI field offices to check if the person is already prohibited from firearms ownership.
• Multiple agencies are already consolidating their relevant databases into VGTOF to improve the NICS effectiveness.
• The report also states that current procedures dictate that all available information related to the transaction is communicated to pertinent individuals.

The bottom line is that this bill addresses issues that have already been addressed at a management level and do not require a legislative solution.

This bill is just political grandstanding.

Two last points:

• The retention of the Form 4473 for ten years. This seems particularly arbitrary and the subject in question may not even be prohibited from firearms ownership. This is a violation of FOPA86 and is the start of a federal registry of firearms owners.
• At the current point in time a person's firearms prohibition is the result of a legal proceeding, mental incapacity or illegal drug use. No suspicion of the federal government adds you to the prohibited class of people. HR1195 seeks to change that.

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