Arizona is a place where even a TV station is called KGUN

By SAM STANTON
McClatchy Newspapers

At the Frontier Gun Shop toward the east side of this city, Jim Sharrah figures he can outfit you with a quality handgun or rifle, ammunition and pretty much whatever else you need in 15 to 20 minutes.

As long as you're a resident of Arizona and at least 21 without an adjudicated history of violence or mental issues, that's about how long the entire process takes, including the background check. You can walk out with the weapon loaded and tucked inside a coat, if necessary, no permit needed.

"I grew up here," the affable 68-year-old John Wayne fan said as he listened to radio replays of President Barack Obama's Wednesday memorial speech. "Back then, you could get out of school, and just go out hunting and shooting."

Since the mass shooting Jan. 8 that killed six people and injured 13 others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, a new national debate has erupted about gun control. One focus is whether laws such as Arizona's, which allowed 22-year-old Jared Loughner to purchase the 9 mm Glock allegedly used in the attack, are too lax.

But missing from the discussion is an understanding of the culture of this southern Arizona community of nearly 1 million people. People here own guns, lots of people - including Giffords, who owned the same model weapon she was shot with.

At least two of the people who helped tend to the wounded and subdue the gunman at the massacre were carrying concealed handguns, and people wearing pistols on their belts or carrying rifles in gun racks always has been a common sight here.

"I'm one of those guys you're going to have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers," said Mike Harris, a 64-year-old broker who performed CPR on two of the shooting victims while carrying a small concealed pistol.

Guns have been part of the fabric of Tucson society since the days of the Old West, and little has changed. Even the local ABC affiliate is known as KGUN-TV.

But Tucson is also known as a more moderate - some would even say liberal - enclave than the rest of this reliably red state is, and in the wake of the Jan. 8 attack some Tucsonans, including the sheriff, say there needs to be a new look at how Arizona handles gun laws.

"You can carry a gun in a restaurant and bars," Cheryl Clark, a 40-year-old financial adviser, said as she waited in line to attend the memorial service at McKale Center for victims of the tragedy. "They're talking about allowing guns in schools, in the universities, allowing professors and students to carry guns.

"I think it's a sad state of affairs that we've come to the point where we think everybody should be armed and dangerous. I mean, we are the Wild West; that's our history and our legacy."

To find that imagery, you need go no farther than Sharrah's Frontier Gun Shop, on busy

Grant Road

, directly across the street from a Boys and Girls Club and Doolen Middle School.

Frontier Gun Shop is one of 224 licensed gun sellers in Pima County.

Outside, the store sign advertises "Great Guns and Good Junk." Inside, you can find used pistols and rifles Sharrah picks up from collectors, estate sales or people who walk in wanting to sell them. Looking for a 1700s-era Irish pistol? He has one.

He also has enough cattle skulls, bridles and stuffed moose heads to outfit any self-respecting Southwestern home.

But Sharrah isn't a caricature. He's serious about gun safety and advises people to take courses before they purchase weapons. He says he always carries a concealed weapon, but he went through the state training that used to be required for that.

Arizona law now says that anyone who can legally own a gun can carry it concealed without a permit or training, a change Sharrah calls "stupid."

"I don't approve of it," he said. "I took the course. I already knew a lot, but I learned a lot from it. Mostly about safety - what to do and what not to do."

Mike Harris has similar views. The former Marine Corps drill instructor said he always carried a concealed pistol, a habit he picked up after being robbed repeatedly while he was the owner of several Sizzler steakhouses and frequently carried cash from the day's receipts.

But he considers himself a trained and knowledgeable gun owner.

Harris was at the scene of the shooting rampage because he wanted to visit a friend who works for Giffords. He arrived at the Safeway parking lot just moments after the shooting had stopped and the gunman had been detained.

Harris walks with a cane and says he's had several heart attacks, but he immediately began performing CPR on one victim, then rested when someone relieved him. Later, he turned back to start CPR on another.

He never thought of drawing his weapon, he said, because others had detained the shooter.

"Afterward, my wife said, 'What would you have done if you'd gotten there earlier?' " he said. "I would have killed him."

Harris still visualizes the carnage in the parking lot, and the physical residue of the attack.

"I was amazed at how many casings there were," he said. "I thought the guy had two guns because there were so many casings."

He notes that the suspect could have gotten a gun virtually anywhere he'd wanted to, and that gun ads run regularly in places such as the Dandy Dime, a local free shopper publication.

But Harris doesn't think the incident means tougher gun laws are needed.

Anyone who answers an ad placed by an individual offering a gun for sale can make the purchase with no scrutiny at all. Unlike at a gun shop, there's no background check; not even a check of identification is required.

"None at all," said Thomas Mangan, a spokesman for the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "If you're the owner and you sell it, you're not required to do anything. The same would apply to 100 guns.

"It's like you're selling a baseball card."

Because of that, there's no way to estimate reliably how many people in Pima County own guns or how many guns there are.

Gun rights advocates will tell you that's the way it should be, that government has no right to impose restrictions on gun ownership, and that Arizona is at the forefront of protecting the Second Amendment.

"I think some of the (negative) views that exist of Arizona come from states on the East Coast and West Coast that have created gun laws that are contrary to the Constitution," said Tommy Rompel, the 29-year-old owner of Black Weapons Armory, a few miles from Sharrah's shop. "You do have a large gun culture here.

"Most of our gun customers believe in being able to protect your home yourself."

Rompel's shop sells high-end weapons, mostly custom-designed versions of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle that can be fitted with various components for different appearances.

"Like Lego blocks for adults," he said, standing in his shop with a pistol holstered to his side.

He also sells suppressors, or silencers. He said many of his customers wanted them because they didn't care to wear ear protection when target shooting and because "they're fun."

Rompel, whose store sits in a strip mall across a street from Duffy Elementary and a block from Rincon High School, understands the perception many people may have of Arizona after the mass shooting. A crew from Al-Jazeera, the worldwide news organization based in Qatar, interviewed him a few days after the incident, and he knows what to expect.

"We're getting thrown under the bus as Arizonans because of what happened," he said.

But he and others said there were elements of life in Arizona that made gun ownership desirable and, in many cases, necessary.

Budget cutbacks have trimmed police services at the same time that illegal immigration has increased, they say, and ranchers in rural areas along the border feel the need to provide for their personal safety.

The very nature of the region makes gun ownership a must for some people, locals said. Once you leave the developed areas, the desert can be an isolated and dangerous place.

Some horseback riders and hikers carry weapons because of the omnipresent rattlesnakes and mountain lions. Other residents note that living far out can mean long response times from law enforcement.

Televised scenes of people packing pistols near the state Capitol just two days after the shooting have drawn national attention, though, as has Arizona's law

that allows carriers of concealed weapons to enter bars or restaurants that serve alcohol as long as they don't imbibe.

Gun rights supporters say that simply allows a gun owner to enjoy a meal at a nice eatery. The Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association maintains a "CCW Cafe" page on its website to help members find restaurants that are friendly to carriers of concealed weapons, and avoid those that aren't.

But it isn't as if Tucson is some throwback town patrolled by a marshal. It's a modern city filled with public art, even on the freeway overpasses, and it boasts a major university that's home to a world-class medical school that saved Giffords' life.

Some of the state's most liberal politicians got their start here, including the late congressman and presidential candidate Morris K. Udall.

Even people who say they understand that gun ownership is part of life in Tucson wonder whether things have gone too far, though.

Mary Harris, a 70-year-old Presbyterian minister who stopped by Giffords' office last week to offer her support, said she understood that seeing guns out in public could be jarring to newcomers.

"If you haven't grown up around here, it can be quite intimidating," she said. "And there are a lot of newcomers around town. It's unnerving for them."

Harris said she understood people who felt the need to carry handguns for self-defense, especially in rural or undeveloped areas. But she'd draw the line at a six-round clip, not the 31-round style Loughner allegedly used.

"Carrying a handgun to protect yourself is one thing," she said. "Carrying an assault weapon is just unnecessary."

(Stanton reports for The Sacramento Bee.)

Gun nuts showing off near site of Ariz. slay rampage

By COLLEEN BUSH Post Correspondent

Last Updated: 7:13 AM, January 16, 2011

Posted: 3:04 AM, January 16, 2011

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/gun_nuts_showing_off_D3rYhnnATAcre1AQNEBMvJ#ixzz1BCjuSoL6

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Thousands of weapons enthusiasts, many openly packing heat, crammed into an Arizona gun show chock full of high-powered rifles and semiautomatic pistols yesterday -- a mere 13 miles away from last weekend's rampage.

Despite the 4,500 who filed into the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Pima County Fairgrounds throughout the day, a donation box at the entrance for the six dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, sat nearly empty.

The audacious showing came as Giffords continued her miraculous recovery, with doctors removing her ventilator by inserting a tube in her windpipe to allow her to breathe without the help of machines.

Some 7,000 people are expected to attend the two-day gun extravaganza that features more than 100 vendors hawking massive arsenals of AK-47s, assault weapons, sniper gear and ammo.

"When guns are in the news, it inspires gun owners to get out and defend their Second and First Amendment rights," said show organizer Bob Templeton, adding that turnout was higher than expected.

Several vendors offered Glocks and 33-round extended clips -- the type used by Jared Lee Loughner, 22, in his Jan. 8 shooting rampage -- although sales were average.

New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy plans to introduce legislation this week outlawing magazines that carry more than 10 rounds.

Meanwhile, a victim from last week's massacre, Eric Fuller, was arrested yesterday after allegedly saying "you're dead" to a gun-rights supporter as the two were speaking at a forum being taped to air on ABC today, the Arizona Republic said.

And a Long Island man, James Guarnaccio, 55, was arrested for allegedly making 40 harassing calls over a two-day span to the district office of Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens).

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/gun_nuts_showing_off_D3rYhnnATAcre1AQNEBMvJ#ixzz1BCiigSk7

Business brisk at Tucson gun show in the wake of rampage

http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE70E21W20110115

5:08pm EST

By Tim Gaynor
TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - Thousands of shoppers browsed for guns at a trade show in Tucson on Saturday, a week after a brutal shooting rampage that killed six people and raised questions about permissive gun laws in the United States.

"People see it as either guns are going to get banned, or I'm going to get shot," said stall holder Randall Record, 27, explaining the mood driving trade at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show on the outskirts of the city. "Either way, it drives sales," he added.

The show comes exactly a week after a college dropout pelted a crowd gathered outside a grocery store with semi-automatic fire, killing a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl and four others.

Thirteen people were injured by the hail of bullets, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who remains critically ill in a city hospital, shot through the head.

Private citizens in the United States are the most heavily armed in the world, according to a study issued by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and gun ownership is a cherished constitutional right.

In 2009, the FBI ran more than 14 million criminal background checks on people seeking to buy firearms, although no records for the number of guns actually sold is kept.

As a stars and stripes flag fluttered at half staff outside the show to honor the dead, shoppers picked over stalls crammed with AR-15 assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols, including the popular Glock 9mm model used in the killing spree.

Others bought hunting and target rifles, pistols for self defense, or bought and sold antique weapons for the love of collecting.

"It's just a hobby," said chemist Donald Macaulay, 62,. who hoped to sell several reproduction flintlock and cap lock rifles at the show. "I get a lot of pleasure from it."
'A WAKE UP CALL'

A troubled 22-year-old college dropout was arrested for the shootings at a "Congress on the corner" event, after being wrestled to the ground by victims and bystanders as he tried to reload.

He is charged with five federal counts, including the murder of a federal judge and the attempted assassination of Giffords.

The shooting highlighted permissive gun laws in the United States, and in Arizona, where a state law allows citizens at least 21 year of age to carry a gun in their pocket without special training or permits.

Gun control advocates said they would to close one loophole in the law that allows the purchase of guns at gun shows, such as the one in Tucson on Saturday, without going through a background check.

Some in the U.S. Congress want tighter regulation of some semi-automatics and the extended magazines of a type Loughner is accused of using to spray dozens of shots in just a few seconds.

But some people at the Tucson trade show drew the opposite conclusion and said the deadly spree showed that Americans need to go out and buy more guns for self defense.

"This incident shows very, very clearly why it is so vital to have more people armed and ready and prepared to defend," themselves and others, said Charles Heller, 53, a founder of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, a civil defense rights group.

Suspect Loughner had a history of emotional problems that have emerged since the shooting. Calls by some groups have focused on the weaknesses of the system used to prevent people with mental illness from buying guns. Loughner successfully bought a gun from a store last November.

"I'm in favor of possibly doing a bit more of a thorough background investigation before just handing someone a firearm," said Steve Smith, 53, a commercial collections investigator carrying a Beretta carbine strapped across his chest, and a Colt pistol in a holster.

But others at the popular arms bazaar, where traders sell holsters, knives and other shooting regalia, wondered whether an appropriately armed citizen at the scene of last week's shooting might have been able to stop the gunman.

"If a responsible person carrying a gun had been there, he could possibly have helped control the situation," said nurse Jim Hague, 50.

(Editing by Greg McCune

Muted gun control debate after Tucson shootings reflects new attitude

By Alex Leary, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, January 16, 2011

WASHINGTON — Echoing across three decades, the roar of gunfire, politics and madness resounds once more.

1981: A mentally ill 25-year-old empties a pistol as President Ronald Reagan exits the Washington Hilton Hotel, leaving him seriously wounded
.
The public outcry leads to a landmark gun control law.

2011: A 22-year-old man described as mentally unhinged empties a pistol into a crowd at an Arizona shopping center, killing six and wounding 13, including a congresswoman.

This time the outcry leads to a fight over fighting words.

The debate is over whether Rush Limbaugh is too mean and Keith Olbermann too sarcastic, whether the political parties are too nasty toward each other.

In Tucson on Wednesday, President Barack Obama called for an end to the overheated rhetoric, urging a new era of civility to honor the victims. The shootings, he noted, had raised a discussion about "the merits of gun safety laws." Then he quickly moved on.
Has America moved on as well?

Public support for gun control has faded over the three decades despite chilling public shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and politicians are less willing to wade into the complex and divisive Second Amendment debate.

Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have expanded gun rights, not taken them away. The National Rifle Association and other gun lobbies have exercised their organizational and political muscle to win a broad array of new freedoms in states.

And consider: As Arizona residents tried to comprehend the tragedy last week, gun sales there soared by 60 percent. People are not worried for their safety. They are worried the government will try to make it harder to get a gun.

Legislation is being drafted in Washington, but chances are nothing will happen.
"A lot of people have given up on the issue," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y..
• • •
Nearly two decades ago, a gunman murdered McCarthy's husband on a Long Island commuter train. As a lawmaker, she has focused her attention on gun control measures, including banning high-capacity ammunition magazines. Their manufacture and import was outlawed under the 1994 assault weapons ban, but the law expired a decade later.
Authorities say 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner popped a 33-round magazine into his Glock semiautomatic last Saturday in Tucson. He shot 19 people before being tackled when a second magazine jammed.

McCarthy's bill would restrict magazines to 10 bullets. (The typical is 15.) "I'm not trying to take anyone's gun away," she insisted.

Still, odds are against her.

The bill did not pass when Democrats controlled the House, and now power rests with Republicans, who in general have resisted more gun control.

House Speaker John Boehner even opposes a proposal from New York Republican Rep. Pete King to outlaw possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress. King has been besieged with calls from critics who say he is trying to take away their Second Amendment rights.

While many lawmakers in Washington were ducking the gun issue last week — focusing, as Obama had, on civility — others said they fear "knee-jerk" responses to a tragedy.

"It appears to me there is plenty of legislation in place," said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. (Despite that, he began working on a bill to allow lawmakers to carry a concealed gun around Capitol grounds.)

Gohmert said the problem was that people around Loughner failed to act as she showed signs of instability. "They closed their doors, they shut their eyes and closed their ears and acted like he wasn't a potential threat."

Loughner legally purchased the Glock 19 at a Sportsman's Warehouse on Nov. 30, passing an instant background check. Despite a history of confusing, paranoid outbursts, he was not flagged as someone who should be ineligible to own a gun.

The Virginia Tech shootings led to federal incentives for states to improve reporting of people with mental health problems. Virginia, for example, has since added more than 49,000 names to a database. Florida has identified 23,500 people, Arizona about 4,500.
Some predict that any legislative response would deal with mental illness, not whether a magazine should be smaller or whether the public at large should have to go through more hoops to obtain and carry a weapon.

"It's not a gun issue," said Bill Bunting, a firearms instructor and Republican activist in Florida. "This guy had a mental defect, evidentially. If they are out to destroy, they are out to destroy. If they can't get their hands on a gun, they will get their hands on something else."

The NRA has kept quiet on the proposed legislation, insisting it is time to grieve. But the organization can also count Congress in its corner, with some Democrats joining Republicans in opposing more controls.
• • •
Public support for stricter gun control laws went up after the shootings in Tucson. Overall, 47 percent of Americans favor tougher regulations, according to a CBS News poll, up from 40 percent in April 2010.

But a jump is expected after a highly publicized tragedy, and the trend has been toward less control.

In 1990, when Gallup first asked about laws covering the sale of firearms, 79 percent of Americans said such laws should be stricter. By 2000, it was down to 62 percent. And last October it dropped to 44 percent.

In that time, the assault weapons ban expired and states have expanded gun rights. Arizona has some of the most permissive in the country, allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit and into restaurants and bars and government buildings.

Florida's gun rights have been expanded in recent years as well. In 2008, Gov. Charlie Crist signed an NRA-pushed law allowing concealed weapons permit holders to bring their guns to work, as long as the weapons remained in their vehicles.
Attitudes among Democrats have shifted as well. Al Gore was hurt by his gun control stance in the 2000 presidential election. Four years later, fellow Democrat John Kerry made sure news cameras captured him on pheasant and duck hunts.

"Democrats have learned it's not a winning issue in most areas," said Harry Wilson, a political science professor at Roanoke College who has written about gun control.
The NRA in 2008 claimed "Barack Obama would be the most antigun president in American history." Obama was solidly in favor of gun controls as a member of the Illinois Legislature, hailing from gun-riddled Chicago.

As a U.S. Senate candidate in 2004, Obama said it was a "scandal" that President George W. Bush was allowing the assault weapons ban to expire.
So when Obama won the presidency, people rushed to buy weapons and ammunition, fearing he would push for a renewal and other controls.
It never happened.

Obama has not touched the gun issue and even signed bills that allow people to carry guns into national parks and in checked luggage on Amtrak. (those provisions were tacked onto bills he wanted).

"He hasn't followed through on anything he said he was going to do. We have him an F last year," said Chad Ramsey of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
He holds out hope that the shooting of a popular congresswoman will spur Congress to act. "This is one of their own that's been attacked," Ramsey said.

But many in Congress said last week that they were focused on the victims and fixing the toxic political climate, not opening the gun debate, particularly when power is divided.

"It's a tough issue to reach consensus on," acknowledged Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat who has favored gun control.

Asked Thursday if the president would press for more limits, press secretary Robert Gibbs said only, "We'll have an opportunity to evaluate some of the other proposals."
Even though Obama barely mentioned guns the other night in Arizona, the Brady Campaign said it was a positive sign that he even did. The group urged him to create a presidential study commission.

For now, the debate is fixed on the dangers of heated political rhetoric. Obama is gearing up for re-election and will likely not highlight gun issues.

"We need to have a serious conversation in America about guns," said Arthur Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "But it seems nobody wants to talk about guns."
Times researcher Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report.

[Last modified: Jan 15, 2011 05:21 PM]

January 14, 2011 6:56 PM

GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Defends Letting Lawmakers Carry Guns in D.C.

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert is working on introducing legislation that would allow members of Congress to carry concealed weapons in Washington, D.C., but he told CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante that this is an issue that goes beyond last Saturday's tragic rampage in Tucson.

"We're targets," he told Plante, "I'm not so much concerned about myself as I with those who would be around me, whether it's people I work with, whether it's family, but it is also a constitutional right."


Gohmert continued, "Washington, D .C ., is a federal enclave, it will not usurp any states rights, and we have the right to legislate within the District of Columbia. So it's just using our constitutional right."



While members of Congress are protected while on Capitol Hill, Gohmert is concerned with the safety of elected officals once they step out of those confines. "The professionals aren't walking with us by ourselves out in the District of Columbia unless you're one of the Republican or Democratic leaders," he noted, "Let me protect myself and use the constitutional law."

Gohmert also weighed in on Rep. Carolyn McCarthy's (D-N.Y.) gun control bill, which he doesn't think has a good chance of passing, that would ban high powered handgun magazine clips. Gohmert likened it obesity, saying: "The problem is not the type of guns and that kind of thing anymore than the problem with obesity in America is we have spoons that are too big and too numerous. It's not the spoons that make people fat and it's not the guns that kill people, it's people that kill people."


Plante asked Gohmert if his legislation does eventually pass, would he himself carry a concealed weapon in Washington. Gohmert replied, "Not all the time, but the criminals will have to wonder whether I am or whether I'm not. Most of the time I won't be but they'll never know unless they try something."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20028614-503544.html

Experts: Gun Background Checks Have Big Gaps

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/15/132942261/experts-gun-background-checks-have-big-gaps

by Laura Sullivan

When Jared Loughner walked into the Tucson gun store where authorities allege he put down his money for a Glock 19 in November,  the store owner sent a request to run Loughner's name through the FBI's database of criminals, fugitives, illegal immigrants and mentally ill to see if Loughner was among them.

Loughner had had several runs in with police for possessing drugs and had been told to leave his community college for erratic behavior. But the arrests never became convictions, and his behavior was never evaluated by state mental health professionals. So like 10 million others across the U.S. last year, Loughner passed and got his gun.

Despite the outcome, it's not people like Jared Loughner — people who may have questionable but not criminal backgrounds — that have gun control advocates worried. It's the database itself, which is only as good as the records that states put into it.
Several studies and experts say those records are often incomplete or missing.

"The (background check system) is gigantically better than nothing, and it is helping to keep people who are not supposed to have guns from getting guns," said Matt Bennett, spokesman of the non-profit group Third Way, formerly known as Americans For Gun Safety. "But it has very significant holes that are problematic."

'That's Not Very Reliable'
The database is a 13-year-old system called NICS — the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It pulls records from not only state and local police but dozens of other agencies, including the U.S. Park Police, campus police and the U.S. Border Patrol. Except for a few additional restrictions in some states, as long as you're 21 and not in it, you can buy a handgun. If you're 18, you can buy a long gun.

But according to the FBI and a 2005 study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a significant problem is the number of states that are slow or fail entirely to update the final outcome of court cases. For example, the database may include the arrest record of someone charged with murder, but it may not know whether that person was convicted if the state court did not provide that information.

"If there's an open warrant for someone's arrest, the database is usually correct," said Robert McCrie, professor of security management at the John Hay College of Criminal Justice. "Where it is not correct is in the disposition of cases — if the charges are later dismissed or the case is continued. That's not very reliable, and that's a problem."

"Many counties and states don't see it as their duty to put substantial information into the system," McCrie said.

Digging Through Records — With A Time Limit
McCrie and other experts say that leaves it up to database researchers to figure out what happened. In some states, researchers have to track the information down at the specific courthouse where the trial occurred, calling a busy clerk's office to ask someone to manually pull the file. Some records are in storage in warehouses or basements.

And according to the law, the researcher only has three days to do it. If the FBI cannot determine whether someone is permitted to buy a gun in three days, in most states the dealer is allowed to proceed with the sale. It's called a "default proceed."

In 2005, the latest figures available, the Justice Department determined that more than 3,000 people walked out of a gun store with a firearm that they should not have been able to buy, because records later revealed they were felons or otherwise prohibited from owning a gun.

At that point, it's up to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives to get the gun back.

"Imagine you're law enforcement and you're sent to retrieve the firearm from the felon who bought it, or the domestic violence offender," said Becca Knox, director of research for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Not exactly the situation we want to put our law enforcement officers in."

Some of the biggest challenges for the database, experts say, are domestic violence and drug cases, which often have inconclusive ends. Defendants are sometimes given a year or two to attend treatment, complete community service or enter therapy before a court decides whether a conviction will stand. An arrest is not enough to prohibit someone from buying a gun.

According to the Justice Department, some states are still entering those records manually. In state where records are fully automated, a clerk in a courtroom can punch the information into the database. Other states pass a handwritten piece of paper from one office to the next before it ever gets entered — a delay that can be costly for victims of domestic violence who have requested immediate restraining orders.

"You can see there's uneven performance," Knox said. "The database is an incredible step forward, but we still have to figure out where the administrative and financial roadblocks are."

In 2009, the FBI ran 10.8 million background checks on potential customers. About 150,000 people were rejected. Most had felony or domestic violence convictions, or a restraining order, on their records. Less than 2 percent were rejected because of a mental illness.

After Dem shift, little chance for new gun controls

By Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
4:12 PM PST, January 13, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-0114-gun-control-20110113,0,6866234,print.story


WASHINGTON — The first federal gun control law was passed in 1968 after the assassinations of the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and the Brady bill mandating background checks on gun purchases was enacted in the years following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. But don't look for any new gun control laws coming out of Capitol Hill in the wake of the Tucson shooting rampage.

The reason is not only the new Republican majority in the House —it's that the Democrats have traveled far from what was once one of their core legislative goals.
Democrats championed gun control in the 1980s and 1990s. But many backed away after the 2000 election, when Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore's support for tighter gun laws likely cost him votes in key rural areas.

The result has been an effective truce on guns, one that allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004 and has even seen key Democrats emerge as some of the gun lobby's leading allies.

The truce is believed to have served Barack Obama well when he was a presidential candidate. In 2008, gun control, once a barrier for Democrats seeking votes in states like Virginia, Indiana or Nevada, hardly registered as a top topic.

That strategy is likely to carry into 2012 election. After conservative-led rout in November, Democrats running in red states — and there are many in the Senate — will be eager to burnish their conservative credentials and hesitant to bump against the powerful National Rifle Association.

Many factors in the Tucson rampage reflect the availability of guns and ammunition in this country: the suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, easily purchased a Glock semi-automatic pistol with extended cartridges. He went practice shooting in the desert on the morning of the attack, in which six died and 14 others were wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), herself the owner of a Glock. The state recently allowed guns to be carried into bars, and is contemplating legislation that would allow college students to carry firearms on campus.

Advocates of new federal gun controls are planning to introduce legislation, but their aims are minimal and their expectations for passage very low.

"We're not looking at banning all weapons," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat who wants to close a loophole that allows some private dealers to sell guns without conducting background checks. "We're looking to make sure that innocent people from all over will be safe in their own homes and public places. I think the tragedy and the heavy moment in which we find ourselves lends itself to some contemplation. I think there's a hope, at least, for reasonableness."

The argument is not likely to woo staunch gun rights advocates in Congress.
"I believe, as Americans have believed since the American founding, that firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens make communities safer, not less safe," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) in an interview. "And I understand the human impulse us to look for blame. Heartache does that. But no expressed opinion and no public policy created what happened on Saturday last."

in recent years, mass shootings have not have generated momentum for new gun laws.
The 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which two teenagers murdered 13 people before killing themselves, sparked gun control proposals in Congress, but resulted in no changes. No new restrictions followed the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings in which 33 people died, including the gunman.

The proposals outlined this week are expected to have a similar lonely, uphill climb.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J..) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) both have promised to propose measures banning the sale and import of high-capacity ammunition magazines, like the one police say Jared Lee Loughner used Saturday. Such magazines were prohibited under the assault weapons ban enacted under President Bill Clinton in 1994 and since lapsed.

Another proposal from Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y), the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, would prohibit the carrying of guns within 1,000 feet of a federal official.

Republicans leaders in the House already have come out against King's bill, underscoring the chamber's hostility to any measure that might be seen as weakening the Second Amendment.

Meanwhile, the Senate is led by Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who often touts his gun rights credentials. Reid's office declined to comment Thursday on specific legislation.

Democrats not only have retreated from gun safety issues over the past four years they controlled Congress, but have supported top priorities on the agenda of the National Rifle Association.

Recent years saw congressional passage of legislation to allow concealed weapons to be carried in national parks and firearms to be stowed in checked bags on Amtrak trains.

NRA endorsements cross party lines, and as more Democrats have emerged from conservative states in recent election cycles, the party has grown friendlier to Second Amendment rights. The powerful gun lobby backed dozens of Democrats along with Republican candidates in the last election cycle, spending more than $2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Gun control advocates say they have not found an aggressive ally in the White House. On Wednesday, President Obama made only vague reference to gun safety in his speech at a memorial for shooting victims in Tucson, saying: "We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future."

It was the most Obama has said about gun safety since becoming president, said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun violence.

"We've been very disappointed in him," Helmke said. "I'm hopeful that's a sign he's going to talk about gun safety laws soon."

On Thursday, the president's spokesman declined to be more specific.

"We all look forward to learning more about what happened and try to explain the why," said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "Evaluation of the facts and how we got to a tragedy like this I think requires us to look at everything."
Khennessey@tribune.com
Lmascaro@tribune.com

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