AG Ashcroft is turning out to be a true friend of the gunners. Sens Schumer & Kennedy are up to their same old tricks.
[b]"The Department of Justice must not put the interests of the gun lobby above the nation's public safety in the battle against terrorism," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is cosponsoring Schumer's bill.[/b]
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http://www.kfwb.com/news/nat/n120715.html

Ashcroft's Stance on Barring FBI Access to Gun Checks Brings Congressional Action

WASHINGTON (AP) 12.07.01, 6:55p -- Attorney General John Ashcroft's refusal to give information to the FBI about criminal background checks on gun buyers is chafing several senators. They plan to do what Ashcroft challenged them to do: change the law.
Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee that gun data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System can't be shared with investigative agencies looking into the Sept. 11 attacks, including the FBI.

At Thursday's hearing, the attorney general said that if lawmakers have a problem with that, they should change the law.

"Not that you want me to enforce some laws and not other laws and you want to ignore laws, or respect some rights and not other rights," Ashcroft told senators. "I'm very pleased to tell you that if you send me the legislation, I'll review it."

On Friday Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and a member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill allowing the FBI to check the NICS logs.

Meanwhile, some critics accuse Ashcroft of being hypocritical, given the Bush administration's recent decisions to implement a number of anti-terrorism measures without consulting Congress beforehand.

"The Department of Justice must not put the interests of the gun lobby above the nation's public safety in the battle against terrorism," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is cosponsoring Schumer's bill.

"They have been a bull in a china shop when it comes to civil liberties, stretching their authority past the breaking point, detaining suspects and witnesses, permitting eavesdropping on detainees' conversations with attorneys and authorizing military tribunals," said Mathew Nosanchuk, lawyer for the Violence Policy Center.

Meanwhile, Ashcroft's spokeswoman issued a statement Friday decrying news accounts of the attorney general's statements at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing the day before.

Mindy Tucker said reports suggesting that Ashcroft was critical of those who don't agree with him were inaccurate. He opposes the "spread of misinformation," she said.

"Ashcroft was very clear he wanted public debate," Tucker said. "Anyone who reported that he criticized anyone who opposed him was absolutely wrong and in doing so became part of the exact problem he was describing."

Justice Department officials say they stand by the decision to deny FBI access to the records but said they are reviewing the regulations and will consider legislation submitted by Congress.

At issue is NICS, the system that electronically checks law enforcement records while gun buyers are waiting to make purchases. Felons, drug users, people subject to domestic violence restraining orders and illegal aliens are among those prohibited from buying guns.

A Justice Department regulation says the NICS logs can only be used to make sure the system is working properly. Ashcroft says giving the records to the FBI to check is not an audit function; others say the FBI should audit the system to see if it has failed by allowing illegal immigrants to purchase guns.

Asked why the department doesn't change the regulation on its own to make it clear, a Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "There's very little wiggle room for us to amend" the regulation.

The official said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were asked after Sept. 11 to submit requests for regulatory and legislative changes that would help them investigate terrorism. The FBI and ATF did not ask for changes that would have allowed agents to use gun buyer data for investigative purposes, the official said.

Gun laws prohibit certain people from buying guns, including felons and most aliens. Terrorism suspects are not among those prohibited from gun purchases, the official said.

warlord,
isn't the system supposed to be purged of  buyer info every ninety days ??  (or something like that.)

I don't recall. But I think Schumer and Kennedy wants to change the NICS background check into a gun registry, that is keeping the info indefinitely.
There is a thread from a few days ago on this subject
[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=75834[/url]

Checked the older thread and the dem's were at it as usual.
They're going to attack anything pro gun or just Republican whether that makes sense or not.

With the media in their pockets their idiocy is seldom heard.

One reason I believe they're purging is that every time I buy a gun I'm held up.  Often they don't answer and I pick up my gun because time has expired.
If they were holding data whatever holds me up would be fixed.

Uh oh, 5subslr5, if you're right about the purging of NICS data we might be in trouble.[;)]
I've never had to wait more than 2 minutes or so for a NICS to go through.  It's been nearly instantaneous every time.

I guess maybe they're saving my info???