[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 174 (Friday, December 14, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13286-S13287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REVIEW OF BACKGROUND CHECK RECORDS

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about our fight against 
terrorism and a report in the New York Times last Thursday about the 
Justice Department's denial of requests from the FBI to review 
background check records for gun purchases as part of its antiterrorist 
investigation.
  When I met with Justice Department officials on November 1, I was 
informed that in the immediate aftermath of the

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September 11 attacks, the Department of Justice compared the audit log 
of approved gun sales under Brady law's National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System to the Federal Government's terrorist 
watchlists.
  The New York Times reported that on September 16, 5 days after the 
terrorist attacks, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms 
requested the FBI center that operates the National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System to check a list of 186 names against the NICS 
audit log. The names were identified as aliens whose identities had 
been developed during the ongoing terrorist investigation. The FBI got 
two hits, meaning that two of the persons on the watchlist had been 
approved to buy guns.
  The ATF's request and the resulting hits underscore the point that 
the NICS audit log has a clear investigative value for law enforcement 
and our counterterrorist efforts.
  Yet the day after the FBI made its initial check, the Attorney 
General's lawyers prohibited further reviews of the audit log by the 
FBI for the purposes of the terrorist investigation.
  The Congress passed and the President signed the Patriot Act earlier 
this year to give the Attorney General expanded powers to fight 
terrorism. The Attorney General has used these powers and others 
created by the administration, without congressional input, to permit, 
for example, eavesdropping on detainees' conversations with their 
attorneys, to implement new wiretapping authority, and to look into the 
backgrounds of truck drivers and crop duster pilots, and immigrants.

  When President Bush addressed Congress on September 20, he said:

       We will direct every resource at our command--every means 
     of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of 
     law enforcement, every financial influence, and every 
     necessary weapon of war--to the disruption and to the defeat 
     of the global terror network.

  Now we find the Attorney General is bending over backwards to protect 
the special interests of the gun lobby at the expense of the safety of 
the American people and the investigation into terrorism. Rather than 
seeking every opportunity to give law enforcement all the information 
at hand, the Attorney General has chosen, erroneously in my view, to 
interpret the Brady law and related Justice Department regulations as 
prohibiting the use of the audit log for investigative purposes beyond 
the performance of the system.
  Even if the Attorney General believed he did not have the authority 
to review the audit log for investigative purposes, why then did he not 
ask Congress for that authority back in September when he was putting 
together his proposals for the Patriot Act? Why wouldn't he want 
Federal law enforcement officers to know if a suspect or potential 
informant had recently purchased a firearm when they go to question or 
detain that person? Finally, why would he continue to seek to reduce 
the retention time for the audit log from 90 days to 1 business day, 
forcing ATF to ask more than 70,000 federally licensed gun dealers to 
review their sales records every time law enforcement authorities 
conduct a review for names associated with gun crimes but particularly 
associated with terrorist activities?
  We can only conclude that politics and the powerful influence of the 
gun lobby have trumped gun policy once again. I hope the Attorney 
General will reconsider his position. None of us really knows what the 
next terrorist attack will look like. We cannot assume that because the 
attacks on September 11 did not involve firearms, the next one will not 
also involve firearms. We should give law enforcement every tool at our 
disposal to prevent terrorists from gaining access to firearms, and to 
know about it when they do.

  If the Attorney General insists upon the narrowest interpretation of 
allowable uses of the NICS audit log, we need legislation to make it 
absolutely clear that law enforcement authorities can review these 
records if they have reason to believe that a person under 
investigation, particularly under investigation for terrorist activity, 
may have purchased a firearm.
  I am pleased to join Senator Schumer as a cosponsor of S. 1788, to 
clarify that NICS audit log records may be accessed by the Federal 
authorities for the purposes of responding to an inquiry from any 
federal, state or local law enforcement agency, and also to ensure that 
these records be maintained for at least 90 days to ensure a reliable 
auditing system is in place.
  I also look forward to consideration at the earliest possible time 
next year of my legislation to close the gun show loophole, so that we 
can prevent convicted felons, fugitives from justice, and, yes, even 
terrorists, from buying guns from private dealers at gun shows without 
a background check.
  There has been a lot of misinformation about the technical 
requirements of conducting Brady Law background checks at guns shows. 
It has been suggested that gun shows in rural areas are not equipped 
with the technology to make background checks feasible. The only 
technology needed to run a Brady background check is a telephone. At 
most gun shows, federally licensed firearms dealers use cell phones to 
conduct background checks. At others, telephone ``land lines'' are made 
available. Under my bill, these federally licensed dealers would run 
checks on behalf of unlicensed sellers at the gun show, ensuring that a 
background check is run every time a gun is sold at more than 4,000 gun 
shows held each year in America.
  I should also add that 95 percent of these checks are completed 
within two hours, and no new technology would be required beyond access 
to a telephone, a device that has been with us for a long time. My 
constituents in Rhode Island and all Americans pay a universal service 
fee as part of their monthly phone bills to ensure that telephone 
service is available to every part of this country, no matter how rural 
or how remote.
  Let's close the gun show loophole so that convicted felons, domestic 
abusers, terrorists, and other prohibited persons do not use gun shows 
to purchase firearms without a Brady background check.
  When we confront terrorists, and when we hear the President say every 
tool available to law enforcement will be used, let us ensure every 
tool is used. Let us ensure there is no area that is off limits because 
of the powerful influence of the gun lobby. Let us give our law 
enforcement officials every opportunity to protect America from 
terrorist attacks.
  I yield the floor.

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