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“SELLING CRIME: HIGH CRIME GUN STORES FUEL CRIMINALS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S216 on Jan. 23, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SELLING CRIME: HIGH CRIME GUN STORES FUEL CRIMINALS
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, last week, Americans for Gun Safety, AGS, published a report entitled ``Selling Crime: High Crime Gun Stores Fuel Criminals.'' This report identifies gun stores around the country that sell the most guns used in crimes.
Federal law requires gun stores to be licensed to sell firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ATF. However, according to Americans for Gun Safety, until recently, the ATF had never released information on the number of crime guns traced back to gun stores. AGS acquired all of its data via Freedom of Information Act requests. The data reveals some troubling facts. According to the report, 96 of the 120 dealers named in the report remain open, and only 24 have been inspected by federal agents during the past 3\1/2\ years. When inspected, 18 of these 24 dealers were cited for at least one violation of federal gun laws and seven high crime dealers were cited more than five times.
The AGS study focuses attention on negligent and irresponsible gun dealers. However, language included in the Fiscal Year 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill will make it impossible for this data on such dealers to be made available to the public in the future. Language included in the omnibus specifically prohibits the release of information related to tracing requests on guns used in crimes.
And that is not the only problem. Even more importantly, language in the bill mandates that the Justice Department destroy background check records for the purchase of guns within 24 hours of the gun purchase. Under current regulations, the ATF can retain the records from gun purchases for up to 90 days. This 90-day period gives law enforcement the opportunity to review and audit gun purchase records for illegal activity and problems with the background check system. The provision requiring the destruction of records within 24 hours was inserted into the bill without a debate or discussion of its potential impact. It is incomprehensible that, at a time when we are in a heightened state of alert to guard against terrorism, we are not providing law enforcement with more than 24 hours to examine information on weapons purchases.
The gun provisions in the omnibus were never the subject of Senate hearings and are not supported by major law enforcement organizations. They undermine the efforts of the ATF to meet its responsibilities, weaken the public's right to know, and make it more difficult for other law enforcement agencies to do their job.
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