Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective Message Board

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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective

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To: Mephisto who wrote (9368)	1/16/2001 3:44:32 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (2) of 10042

....."according to the Violence Policy Center, Ashcroft penned a note to Pratt vowing to dilute an anti-crime measure that had been supported by no less a defender of gun rights than Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). It would have given federal law- enforcement authorities the ability to use the racketeering statutes to go after illegal gun traffickers. Not law-abiding dealers nor innocent hunters. Illegal traffickers. The provision eventually was weakened. Ashcroft sided with the gun lobby and against the FBI on the Brady Law, which requires criminal-background checks on gun purchasers. He voted, over law-enforcement opposition, to shorten the length of time officials are given to conduct the checks. He opposes current laws requiring the record of checks to be kept for six months. This is the FBI's way to ensure that the law works properly-that is, denying guns to criminals and others banned from owning them. Ashcroft is against all the usual half-measures the Congress sometimes tries to take to reduce the number of guns, or at least the deadly firepower, that is accessible to people like McDermott. He is against the 1994 ban on newly manufactured assault weapons, which expires in 2004 and will thus require the next attorney general's backing to be extended. He voted twice against banning the import of high-capacity magazines for assault weapons that remain in circulation. He voted against regulating gun sales on the Internet. He supported requiring the FBI to create a special database of felons who have won court approval to get their gun-rights back, to ensure that the felons' efforts to purchase new guns go smoothly. He supported a referendum in Missouri-a statewide ballot initiative the voters defeated-that would have allowed just about anyone, including stalkers, to carry a concealed weapon. Bush keeps talking about opposition to his controversial nominees as if it is an unseemly plot against the goodness he knows is in their "hearts." But the problem with Ashcroft is not in his heart. It is in his public record. Excerpts from an article by Marie Cocco. Marie Cocco's e-mail address is cocco@newsday.com. newsday.com

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