[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2778 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2778

 To protect ability of law enforcement to effectively investigate and 
  prosecute illegal gun sales and protect the privacy of the American 
                                people.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 2, 2001

 Mrs. McCarthy of New York (for herself, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Pascrell, 
  Mr. Weiner, Mr. Capuano, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Crowley, Mr. 
  McGovern, Ms. Solis, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Norton, Mr. Moran of Virginia, 
Mrs. Tauscher, and Mrs. Lowey) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To protect ability of law enforcement to effectively investigate and 
  prosecute illegal gun sales and protect the privacy of the American 
                                people.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Gun Sale Anti-Fraud and Privacy 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) illegal gun sales and illegal gun purchases contribute 
        substantially to crime in the United States;
            (2) many persons who sell and buy guns cross State lines to 
        do so and transport guns across State lines for the purpose of 
        reselling guns and for use in criminal activity;
            (3) those intent on selling and purchasing guns illegally 
        are adept at making sales and purchases appear to be legal and 
        maintenance of records of sales facilitates law enforcement's 
        ability to investigate illegal sales;
            (4) these illegal sales and the uses to which the illegally 
        sold guns are put have an effect on interstate commerce;
            (5) law enforcement's access to records collected over a 
        reasonable length of time is essential to law enforcement's 
        ability to investigate and limit illegal gun sales;
            (6) the National Instant Criminal Background Check System 
        (NICS) is the primary law enforcement tool for preventing 
        illegal gun sales and purchases by federally licensed firearms 
        dealers to felons, fugitives, the mentally ill, and other 
        prohibited purchasers;
            (7) NICS was designed to include an audit log which acts 
        not as a gun registry, but as a device essential to effectively 
        investigating and identifying instances in which NICS is being 
        defrauded or abused;
            (8) these instances of fraud and abuse that the NICS audit 
        log protects against include the use of false or stolen 
        identification purchase guns, straw purchases, and 
        circumstances where dealers are violating individuals' privacy 
        rights by running background checks on people other than actual 
        gun transferees;
            (9) without the ability to employ the audit log in 
        legitimate law enforcement investigations, there is no way to 
        adequately ensure the integrity of NICS, including guaranteeing 
        that Federal firearm licensees or other unauthorized users are 
        not accessing a system that contains a substantial amount of 
        criminal history, mental health, and other personal information 
        that should not be accessed except in connection with 
        appropriate background checks; and
            (10) Congress has the power pursuant to the Interstate 
        Commerce Clause, and other provisions of the Constitution to 
        ensure, by enactment of this Act, that gun dealers and buyers 
        do not fraudulently sell and purchase firearms and to guarantee 
        that individuals' privacy rights are not violated by misuse of 
        NICS.

SEC. 3. GUN SALE ANTI-FRAUD AND PRIVACY PROTECTION.

    (a) Prevention of Fraud and Abuse.--Section 922(t)(2)(C) of title 
18, United States Code, is amended by inserting ``, not less than 90 
days after the date on which the licensee first contacts the system 
with respect to the transfer'' before the period.
    (b) Interagency Cooperation.--Section 922(t)(2) of such title is 
amended by adding after and below the end the following:
``The Attorney General shall make available to the Secretary of the 
Treasury the records maintained in accordance with subparagraph (C), to 
enable the Secretary to conduct audits to detect fraud and misuse of 
the system and to protect the privacy and security of the information 
in the system. The Secretary of the Treasury shall maintain and destroy 
the records in accordance with all laws applicable to the records.''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect 180 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act.
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