-Caveat Lector- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22381 Thursday, April 12, 2001 Alternative to background checks pushed Pro-gun authors' proposal removes current firearm-registration risks By Jon Dougherty © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Two pro-firearms authors have developed what they say is a new method of preventing criminals from purchasing guns, while protecting lawful gun-owners from the possibility of eventual gun registration or bans. Brian Puckett, founder of Citizens of America -- a California-based pro-gun organization, and Russ Howard, a past director for the National Rifle Association and founder of Citizens Against Corruption, have developed a new system that would "replace the existing firearm purchase background check system with an identity search/firearms disability check that eliminates the risk of gun registration inherent in the current system." Currently, gun buyers are subjected to NICS -- the National Instant Check System, operated by the FBI via its West Virginia facility -- that immediately informs a gun dealer whether a customer is wanted by police, has a criminal record that would prohibit the purchase of a gun, or is prevented from owning a gun for other reasons. But Puckett and Howard have come up with a different system they call "BIDS" -- Blind Identification Data System -- which purports "to eliminate gun owner registration while continuing to provide for a system to prevent illegal gun sales by dealers." "In BIDS, the word 'blind' refers to the fact that the government cannot detect who is attempting to buy or has bought a firearm and thus cannot add this person's name to a registry of gun owners. Nor can gun dealers randomly view a list of persons who have been denied the right to buy, own and use firearms," the authors said in a published report about the new program. The report calls the NICS system "deeply flawed" because it "provides the means for the government to create and update, with relative ease, an illegal registry of firearm owners." FBI officials say gun buyers are not kept in a permanent database or registry, but despite that, the BIDS system, the authors argue, would alleviate that possibility for good, should lawmakers ever attempt to force the agency to record gun buyers and transactions in a permanent database. Also, the authors said, "Gun owner registries have already been created in certain states (Illinois and Pennsylvania, for example) and the federal government continues to compile a microfilmed list of gun purchasers via surrendered Form 4473's." The BIDS system, the report said, uses computer and Internet technology to allow firearm dealers to determine whether or not a potential buyer is prohibited from purchasing a firearm, but without the government ever knowing the potential purchaser's name or whether or not he actually bought a firearm. "Historical records, such as The Federalist Papers, clearly show that the Second Amendment is intended to stand as a bulwark against establishment of a tyrannical American government," the report said. "It is elementary that the spirit of the Second Amendment opposes the establishment of federal or state registries of gun owners, which would greatly simplify confiscating guns or rounding up gun owners by such a tyrannical government." Also, the report cites federal law, which prohibits government collection of gun ownership information. Section 926 of the 1968 Gun Control Act, the authors quote, says: "No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearm Owners' Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established. ..." Also, the authors said the so-called "Brady Law," which codified the NICS system, also prevents firearms transaction and ownership records from being permanently catalogued in a database: Section 25.9(d) -- The following records of state and local law enforcement units serving as POCs will be subject to the Brady Act's requirements for destruction: (1) all inquiry and response messages (regardless of media) relating to the initiation and result of a check on the NICS that allows a transfer that are not part of a records system created and maintained pursuant to independent state law regarding firearms transaction; and (2) all other records relating to the person or the transfer created as a result of a NICS check that are not part of a records system created and maintained pursuant to independent state law regarding firearms transactions. The authors of the report said that as currently established, the National Instant Check System (NICS) requires anyone trying to purchase a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer to submit his or her name to the government and then undergo a background check. A record of the check is submitted electronically by the gun dealer and is recorded by the FBI, which administers the NICS system. "Thus, anyone who has submitted to a NICS check can be presumed to own a gun if he or she passes. If so desired, the actual sale can be verified via a gun dealer's Form 4473 records," said the report. Worse, "there is no way to prove that NICS records are ever being completely purged. Sworn testimony from government officials to this effect is meaningless because no official can personally monitor his purview 24 hours a day," the report said. And, the report said, "there is an obvious loophole to the 'no records' rule built into the Gun Control Act of 1968: The federal government is allowed to take possession of the records of gun dealers who close their businesses. Thus, the government has already compiled a massive list of gun owners dating back to 1968." The BIDS system, however, works on a different principle, the authors said. At its "heart" is "an encrypted database of all persons who are prohibited from owning, using or purchasing firearms." The BIDS database would be supplied to all licensed firearm dealers, who would store it in a dedicated BIDS computer or computers. Firearm dealers would verify the prospective gun buyer's driver's license or state-issued ID and enter name, date of birth, and state ID number into their BIDS computer. The computer would then search the encrypted database for a match, the report said. "If there were a match, the computer would display that name and associated information, and the prospective buyer would be prohibited from making the purchase. If there were no match, the computer would display a message stating that fact, and the sale could proceed," the authors said. And, to prevent misuse of information in the BIDS database, and to comply with existing privacy laws, the database would be accessible only to licensed dealers who were given the access key. Furthermore, records in the database would be individually encrypted so that a dealer could not peruse them at will. "In other words, no records would be viewable unless it were the result of a particular name/ID match," said the report. In order to comply with various state and federal privacy laws, the authors said the BIDS system would not divulge the particular reason why a person was prohibited from owning a gun. At most, the author's report said, the system could give out the "nature" of the prohibition, "such as lifetime prohibition" of firearms ownership. "To complete the BIDS system, additional peripheral laws will be required in order to protect the government and its agents, firearm dealers and gun buyers," said the report. "If desired, BIDS could be phased in as NICS was being phased out." The authors argue that the cost of the system would be minimal because much of the infrastructure -- under the current NICS system -- is already in place. Some critics have said that the BIDS system could be easily bypassed by gun dealers and therefore would be difficult for the federal government to monitor for compliance. But the authors said the current NICS system is also subject to similar discrepancies. "Under either NICS or BIDS, it is easy for a dealer to buy a used gun from an individual, not enter it into his inventory, and then sell it to someone else without ever filling in any government papers," the report said. And, the authors note, most gun dealers subject all customers to NICS checks and would likely do so under BIDS, to avoid legal pitfalls and to prevent criminals from gaining access to firearms. Overall, "if fully implemented, BIDS would be more effective than NICS in halting firearm sales to firearm-disabled persons, but BIDS would not have the terrible ingrained flaw of NICS, which is that it facilitates the creation of a national registry of firearm owners," the report concludes. "BIDS does not provide a truly constitutional arrangement, i.e., no background check prior to exercising a constitutionally protected right. We remind readers that no background checks are required for purchasing cars, knives, flashlights, tools, rope or other items commonly used in committing crimes, none of which items, unlike firearms, have constitutional protection regarding their ownership and use," said the report. But it "does take a huge stride toward halting the ongoing rapid formation of a national registry of firearm owners, which the authors perceive as the greatest and most pressing danger to exercising the right to keep and bear arms," the authors said. Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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