A BuzzFlash Editorial Commentary

TO APPEASE THE GUN LOBBY, ASHCROFT BETRAYS THE WAR ON TERRORISM

DECEMBER 6

Our Attorney General, who was recently featured as the monthly poster boy by the National Rifle Association, is selling out the war on terrorism to appease the gun lobby. He is willing to infringe on civil rights right and left, but he is prohibiting the FBI from checking on gun purchases and ownership of alleged terrorists. That's not even an infringement on anyone's civil rights. That's just a craven sell out to the gun lobby, at the expense of fully fighting the war on terrorism.

Why is Ashcroft doing this? As a failed candidate for re-election to the Senate from Missouri in 2000, Ashcroft received more campaign money from the NRA than any other senate candidate. The NRA has long been more concerned about protecting the gun industry than protecting the health, safety and security of Americans. Through other means, bypassing the Justice Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has found that "34 guns seized in crimes had been bought at some point by people on the detainee list," according to the New York Times.

But that is probably just the tip of the iceberg. The gun lobby doesn't want Americans to know how the porous gun purchasing system in the United States makes the whole country a virtual flea market for small arms trafficking by terrorists and others. Our Attorney General, who pompously justifies trampling on civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution, stands by the dangerous self-protective stance of the gun industry, rather than allow law enforcement officials from taking the first steps to identify terrorists' involvement with firearms ownership in the United States.

Whose side is the Attorney General on? The side of the American people in the war on terrorism, or the side of the gun lobby who doesn't give a damn if terrorists buy guns in the U.S.?

If it weren't tragic in its implications for the nation, the Ashcroft/NRA effort to conceal the likely terrorist gun purchases from the American public and law enforcement officials would be the stuff of a dark comedy. The Justice Department is refusing to turn over potential terrorist gun purchase information to the FBI because one Ashcroft DOJ official "ruled that these checks were improper, reasoning that they would violate the privacy of these foreigners. F.B.I. officials said foreigners normally did not have privacy rights unless they have achieved permanent resident status."

The NRA bragged, before the 2000 election, that if Bush won, they would have an office at the White House. Well, they must have one at the Justice Department too, to the detriment of the safety and security of the American public.

A BuzzFlash Editorial Commentary

Here is the article from the New York Times that details the Ashcroft betrayal of our anti-terrorism effort to appease the NRA, his patron:

Go To:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/national/06GUNS.html

December 6, 2001
Justice Dept. Bars Use of Gun Checks in Terror Inquiry
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
The New York Times

The Justice Department has refused to let the F.B.I. check its records to determine whether any of the 1,200 people detained after the Sept. 11 attacks had bought guns, F.B.I. and Justice Department officials say.

The department made the decision in October after the F.B.I. asked to examine the records it maintains on background checks to see if any detainees had purchased guns in the United States.

Go to link above for the full article