Steven Mace
01-29-2002, 10:06 PM
State gets high mark on gun control
By RABIAH AHMED : The Herald-Sun
ghi@herald-sun.com
Jan 27, 2002 : 9:38 pm ET
DURHAM -- A new study shows North Carolina does the best job in the nation of automating criminal records, but not good enough to keep hundreds of people from buying guns who should not have them.
North Carolina received a B-plus, the highest grade, for adequately automating 94 percent of its felony and domestic violence records, according to the Jan. 16 study by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation.
But 355 illegal buyers were still able to obtain a firearm in North Carolina over the past 2 ½ years, the study found.
Nationwide, 10,000 illegal buyers purchased firearms despite going through a criminal background check, according to the report titled "Broken Records," which used data from the U.S. Department of Justice and state sources.
The study found 22 states failed to computerize many of their criminal and mental health records. North Carolina was one of 33 states that did not share mental health records with the national or its state background-check systems.
Local gun-control advocates praised the study, but others said it raises old issues without offering any real solutions.
"The study reminds us that individual records regarding felony convictions and indictments are seriously incomplete and difficult to access in many states," said Philip Cook, a professor of public policy studies at Duke University.
Marcia Owen, outreach coordinator for the Religious Coalition for a Non-Violent Durham, was pleased with North Carolina’s ranking.
"Unfortunately, North Carolina joins 33 other states in having no way to deny firearms to those mentally disqualified," she said.
In 1993, Congress adopted the Brady Bill, giving law enforcement five days to search through paper records and approve or deny the buyer. In 1998, the government replaced the manual check system with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), an automated system designed to approve or deny buyers instantly. If a background check is not answered within three business days, a gun dealer may turn over the firearm to the buyer, unless prohibited by state law.
In North Carolina, buyers undergo state and federal background checks. For handguns, an individual must first obtain a permit from the county sheriff’s office. For a rifle or shotgun, a buyer must be approved through the FBI’s system.
In a telephone interview, Andrew Arulanandm, public affairs officer of the National Rifle Association, said the association has been criticizing deficiencies in the criminal background system for 15 years.
"I think it’s rather duplicitous for many of the [Americans for Gun Safety] people to make these claims when many of them held strategic government positions in the past," he said.
For example, organization spokesman Matt Bennett was a political aide during the Clinton administration and legislative director Jim Kessler was gun adviser to Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, Arulanandm said.
"And it is noteworthy that Kessler’s former boss, Senator Schumer, has been silent in advocating improvements to the background system," he added.
While the report argued that states’ failure to automate many records lets many illegal buyers pass background checks, Arulanandm said the nation’s major defense for keeping guns out of criminal’s hands is full of other deficiencies.
"The current system is just not doing its job," he said. "For instance, the system can only determine whether a person with that name has a criminal history. There is no way to prove that the person standing before you is the same person"
Keith Pierce, manager of the Colonial Gun Shop in Hillsborough, said even with the automated system, there are problems. Potential buyers are given an identification number, but sometimes the background check comes back with a different number, causing delays.
"In fact, we once estimated a loss of $25,000 loss in sales due to the number of delays we get," Pierce said, adding, "A lot of our customers are traveling through and simply want to buy a piece."
The report recommended the law enforcement and the mental health communities work together to automate mental health records without invading people’s privacy.
"I was struck by the report’s finding that on a survey of the prison population, 26,325 inmates imprisoned on gun-related charges said that they had spent at least one night in a mental health facility," said Owen.
Mental health records are also important to get because the majority of gun deaths in the United States are suicides, she added.
The Gun Safety Foundation also called for instituting a "don’t know/don’t sell" policy that would extend the period to complete a background check.
But David LaCourse, public affairs director for the Second Amendment Foundation, an advocacy group against gun control, said extending periods for checks would not solve the problem.
"Extending or reviving a waiting period does not correct the records," he said. "That is the problem."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-188364.html
Steve Mace
By RABIAH AHMED : The Herald-Sun
ghi@herald-sun.com
Jan 27, 2002 : 9:38 pm ET
DURHAM -- A new study shows North Carolina does the best job in the nation of automating criminal records, but not good enough to keep hundreds of people from buying guns who should not have them.
North Carolina received a B-plus, the highest grade, for adequately automating 94 percent of its felony and domestic violence records, according to the Jan. 16 study by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation.
But 355 illegal buyers were still able to obtain a firearm in North Carolina over the past 2 ½ years, the study found.
Nationwide, 10,000 illegal buyers purchased firearms despite going through a criminal background check, according to the report titled "Broken Records," which used data from the U.S. Department of Justice and state sources.
The study found 22 states failed to computerize many of their criminal and mental health records. North Carolina was one of 33 states that did not share mental health records with the national or its state background-check systems.
Local gun-control advocates praised the study, but others said it raises old issues without offering any real solutions.
"The study reminds us that individual records regarding felony convictions and indictments are seriously incomplete and difficult to access in many states," said Philip Cook, a professor of public policy studies at Duke University.
Marcia Owen, outreach coordinator for the Religious Coalition for a Non-Violent Durham, was pleased with North Carolina’s ranking.
"Unfortunately, North Carolina joins 33 other states in having no way to deny firearms to those mentally disqualified," she said.
In 1993, Congress adopted the Brady Bill, giving law enforcement five days to search through paper records and approve or deny the buyer. In 1998, the government replaced the manual check system with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), an automated system designed to approve or deny buyers instantly. If a background check is not answered within three business days, a gun dealer may turn over the firearm to the buyer, unless prohibited by state law.
In North Carolina, buyers undergo state and federal background checks. For handguns, an individual must first obtain a permit from the county sheriff’s office. For a rifle or shotgun, a buyer must be approved through the FBI’s system.
In a telephone interview, Andrew Arulanandm, public affairs officer of the National Rifle Association, said the association has been criticizing deficiencies in the criminal background system for 15 years.
"I think it’s rather duplicitous for many of the [Americans for Gun Safety] people to make these claims when many of them held strategic government positions in the past," he said.
For example, organization spokesman Matt Bennett was a political aide during the Clinton administration and legislative director Jim Kessler was gun adviser to Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, Arulanandm said.
"And it is noteworthy that Kessler’s former boss, Senator Schumer, has been silent in advocating improvements to the background system," he added.
While the report argued that states’ failure to automate many records lets many illegal buyers pass background checks, Arulanandm said the nation’s major defense for keeping guns out of criminal’s hands is full of other deficiencies.
"The current system is just not doing its job," he said. "For instance, the system can only determine whether a person with that name has a criminal history. There is no way to prove that the person standing before you is the same person"
Keith Pierce, manager of the Colonial Gun Shop in Hillsborough, said even with the automated system, there are problems. Potential buyers are given an identification number, but sometimes the background check comes back with a different number, causing delays.
"In fact, we once estimated a loss of $25,000 loss in sales due to the number of delays we get," Pierce said, adding, "A lot of our customers are traveling through and simply want to buy a piece."
The report recommended the law enforcement and the mental health communities work together to automate mental health records without invading people’s privacy.
"I was struck by the report’s finding that on a survey of the prison population, 26,325 inmates imprisoned on gun-related charges said that they had spent at least one night in a mental health facility," said Owen.
Mental health records are also important to get because the majority of gun deaths in the United States are suicides, she added.
The Gun Safety Foundation also called for instituting a "don’t know/don’t sell" policy that would extend the period to complete a background check.
But David LaCourse, public affairs director for the Second Amendment Foundation, an advocacy group against gun control, said extending periods for checks would not solve the problem.
"Extending or reviving a waiting period does not correct the records," he said. "That is the problem."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-188364.html
Steve Mace