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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (6301)	3/4/2003 1:46:22 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

A gun policy to help crooks EDITORIAL sfgate.com Monday, March 3, 2003 WHY IS U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft acting like an armed criminal's best friend? Because his views on gun ownership are undercutting law enforcement here in California. It's a strange position for the nation's top cop. To most Americans, he wields an avenging sword when it comes to hunting down law-breakers. If anything, Ashcroft is rapped for his eagerness to bend civil liberties in the hunt for terrorists post Sept. 11. But gun ownership is another matter for him. Ashcroft espouses a personal belief that the Constitution guarantees gun ownership, a view at odds with 60 years of federal and court policy that firearms are not a fundamental right and can be regulated. It's a major distinction because the Ashcroft view has infected his department. New marching orders have gone out: Gun control is the enemy, not gun-carrying criminals. The latest instance is a baffling threat by Washington to California authorities to stop using a federal databank on illegal gun owners. The Washington computer file contains names of felons, drug dealers, suspected terrorists, spouse beaters, illegal immigrants and others who aren't allowed to own guns. Though California has its own roster of names of those forbidden from buying weapons, the state attorney general makes 5,000 checks a year on the federal roster to see if gun buyers show up on the national don't- sell list. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer likes the federal databank for other reasons. It helps police, sheriffs and his own staff investigate the true gun nuts: Those who buy and stockpile illegal weapons and may have records elsewhere. The federal information is also on a checklist that Sacramento uses before returning a confiscated weapon. A would-be gun owner might be clear in California but convicted elsewhere, a fact that could only be learned from the federal databank. But Washington is insisting on the narrowest possible use of the computer information. Only gun dealers may use the resource, not state investigators. This isn't the first time that Ashcroft's views have interfered with commonsense law enforcement. In the hunt for terrorists after Sept. 11, the FBI was stopped from using the same database to screen suspected terrorists. Again the same reasoning: the computer is off-limits for such searches by outside investigators. Such thinking is self-defeating ideology. Ashcroft plainly wants to undercut gun controls. But his agency is also charged with safeguarding the country from violent criminals who use firearms. It's a stance that makes no sense and jeopardizes public safety. Washington should allow California to use its databank to curb gun violence