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Subject:
[FP] Gun owners face mandatory fingerprinting, photos, testing
Date:
Sun, 14 May 2000 21:21:14 -0500
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SCAN THIS NEWS
5.13.2000
---
Gun owners face mandatory fingerprinting, photos, testing
By Matthew Mittan
http://www.ashevilletribune.com/fingerprinting.htm
Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein has introduced a bill that would
require that
all legal gun owners in America be licensed, fingerprinted,
tested,
photographed and forced to sign safety contracts with the
federal
government.
"When you want to hunt, you get a hunting license; when you want
to drive,
you get a driver's license," Feinstein said. But, "when it comes
to guns and
gun owners, there's no license and no registration. ... The time
has come to
treat gun owners no differently than anyone who seeks to drive a
car."
Accompanying Feinstein at her Capitol Hill news conference were
other
gun-owner-control advocates.
Under the new law, if it is passed, all law abiding American
citizens who
wish to purchase a new firearm would have to pass a federal
firearms use
test, submit to fingerprinting and photographing by the federal
government,
pass Justice
(Pictured above) The U. S. Border Patrol already employs a
system, to log
information on people, that uses digitized fingerprints and
photographs. The
information is stored in a government computer database which is
available
to federal agents and law enforcement officials. The government
may enlist
the help of this same technology to build files on law abiding
Americans who
own guns, if a new bill before Congress is adopted. (Photo by
Denis Poroy..)
Department and State background checks, provide information as
to date and
place of birth and their current residential address, sign
contracts to
"keep the guns away from children" and pay a $25 license fee.
Licenses would
need to be renewed every five years, and would be revoked at any
time if the
gun owner ever became disqualified under any new or old federal
law
regarding gun possession.
Current gun owners would have 10 years to become federally
licensed or face
consequences, possibly from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms
(ATF), the agency responsible for the debacle at Waco, TX where
dozens of
men, women and children died and also for the incident at Ruby
Ridge. New
gun purchases would be effected immediately.
The legislation, called The Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale
Act, is the
latest and most aggressive gun-owner-control measure to be
authored by
Feinstein, who in 1994 won passage of a ban on numerous
manufactured gun
features. In the Republican-controlled Congress, where centrist
and rural
Democrats share a skepticism about imposing too many additional
gun
restrictions, its short-term fate can be judged by examining
other gun
legislation.
A measure targeting gun-show sales has been stalled for 10
months.
"Anybody who understands the political situation in this country
knows this
bill isn't going to go anywhere," National Rifle Association
spokesman Jim
Manown said. "The only thing it will accomplish is get Senator
Feinstein
publicity."
Feinstein is campaigning for re-election against Rep. Tom
Campbell of Palo
Alto, a moderate Republican who's strongly supported gun-control
measures in
the past. Campbell, however, has raised doubts about the new
bill, including
privacy concerns over the maintenance of a permanent
gun-ownership list and
constitutional concerns over the law's reach.
More than 65 million U.S. residents currently own about 230
million
firearms, according to National Rifle Association estimates.
Feinstein's
measure would not only apply to handgun owners, but to rifle
owners also.
As an incitement to debate, Feinstein's legislation raises
several
questions. Gun aficionados will want to know whether mandatory
registration
violates the Second Amendment's stricture against government
infringement on
the right to bear arms.
"The Constitution reads, "...the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms
shall not be infringed." A synonym for infringed is encroach.
Encroach is
defined by Webster's New World College Dictionary as "in a
gradual or sneaky
way"; "to advance beyond the proper, original, or customary
limits; make
inroads on or upon."
Manown of the NRA said the thrust of opposition will be
elsewhere. More
pragmatically, gun-owning skeptics question how well the ATF
will be able to
administer what could be a large-scale registration program.
"I'd venture that the only people standing in line to get their
fingerprints
taken will be law-abiding citizens," Manown said.
Under the 1934 National Firearms Act, the government already
registers
owners of machine guns, silencers, sawed-off shotguns and
certain other
firearms that lawmakers once deemed as gangster-friendly.
Feinstein's is not the first effort to require widespread
documenting and
list compiling of gun owners.
New York City started requiring the registration of rifle and
shotgun owners
in 1967. Then in 1991, the city banned certain shotguns and
rifles that had
always been legal, and notified the effected 2,340 licensed
citizens that
they had to surrender or render inoperable their guns to
government
authorities.
The Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, is cosponsored by
Senators
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Charles
Schumer
(D-N.Y.). Rep. Marty Meehan, (D-Mass) is introducing the same
bill in the
House of Representatives. Supporters of the new legislation
include Donna
Dees-Thomases, founder of the "Million Mom March"; Charles
Ramsey,
Washington, District of Columbia Chief of Police; and Michael
Barnes,
President of Handgun Control, Inc..
Contact information:
Sen Dianne Feinstein - 202-224-3841
NC Senators: John Edwards - 919-856-4245 and 202-224-3154
Jesse Helms - 828-322-5170 and 202-224-6342
Tribune comments: 828-254-1106 or tribune@ioa.com
(For further examples of widespread gun-owner-control measures
accomplished
in the past visit
http://www.ashevilletribune.com/guncontrol.htm.)
Michael Doyle’s report from Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
contributed to
this article.
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