Friday - April 20, 2007

For The Record

In the last week I have received numerous e-mails about firearms background checks, rules, regulations, state-by-state differences, requirements and other information about the process of buying firearms. Here is a collection of material that may help you out.

In the next few weeks you will be hearing a lot about background checks, the Brady Bill and state/national databases. Here is the information you will need to tell who is blowing smoke on the subject. The paper this comes from was written by a third-year law student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law in 1997 and, although it is somewhat dated and superseded by recent changes in the law, is an excellent starting point.

Keeping firearms out of the hands of those persons whom society deems to be dangerous and irresponsible is one of the primary goals of the United States gun control policy. This goal is evidenced by the Gun Control Act of 1968, which prohibits a federal firearm licensee (FFL) from transferring handguns to any person who is either under twenty-one, not a resident in the dealer’s State, or prohibited by state or local law from purchasing or possessing firearms.

The Gun Control Act also forbids possession of a firearm by and transfer of a firearm to convicted felons, fugitives from justice, unlawful users of controlled substances, persons adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to mental institutions, aliens unlawfully present in the United States, persons dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces, persons who have renounced their citizenship, and persons who have been subjected to certain restraining orders or who have been convicted of a misdemeanor offense involving domestic violence.

All fifty states have access to the federally operated National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database and can check its information to see if an individual is “wanted.” Likewise, every state can access the NCIC’s Interstate Identification Index (III) database, which is a national system containing information provided by each state on individuals who have a criminal record.

Those who are authorized to access the system will be made aware of the states that have a record on a particular individual and information regarding the individual’s criminal history in that state. At the end of 1996, every state was making use of these two federal databases in relation to background checks for the sale of handguns.

The existence of databases and their coverage varies at the state level.

Computerized criminal history databases, which contain at a minimum felony arrests and dispositions, were maintained and checked by forty-nine states at the end of 1996, with Mississippi being the only exception.

Databases containing “fugitive” information were maintained and checked by forty-five states at the end of 1996, with Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma being the only states which did not have such databases.

At the end of 1996, databases covering restraining orders were maintained and checked by only thirty-two states. Those states which did not utilize such databases include: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

The coverage of mental health information in databases is less common and at the end of 1996 only sixteen states were using them for background checks including: California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

“BRADY OR NOT?” - A Comprehensive Examination of the Brady Bill, by Wesley Lasseigne

Here is the “Brady Form” you have to fill out and which is used to phone in for background check information to purchase a firearm

And for the IT professionals (like myself) and other geeks out there this is how the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is setup. Requests from FFL’s for background check come in by toll free phone to FBI Call Center (upper left) or State Call Center (lower left).

SOURCE: “GAO Report Feb 2000: GUN CONTROL - Implementation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System”

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/20/2007 at 01:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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