[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1253 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1253

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 26, 2001

 Mr. Schumer (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. Clinton, 
 Mr. Torricelli, Mr. Corzine, Mrs. Boxer, and Mr. Reed) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and 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 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 the system, 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 before the period at 
the end the following: ``consistent with the responsibility of the 
Attorney General under section 103(h) of the Brady Handgun Violence 
Protection Act to ensure privacy of the system and to prevent system 
fraud and abuse, but in no event fewer than 90 days after the date on 
which the licensee first contacts the system with respect to the 
transfer''.
    (b) Interagency Cooperation.--Section 922(t)(2) of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting at the end the following:
``During the period that records are maintained pursuant to 
subparagraph (C), the Department of Justice and its divisions including 
the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall make those records available 
to the Department of Treasury and its divisions including the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, for the purpose of conducting system 
audits to detect fraud and misuse of the system and to protect the 
privacy and security of the system. The Department of Treasury shall 
maintain and destroy those records in accordance with all statutory 
requirements imposed on the Department of Justice.''

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

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