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ATTORNEY GENERAL STATEMENT

WASHINGTON, DC Attorney General Ashcroft today released the following statement regarding NICS:

• "A top priority of this administration and this Department of Justice is reducing gun crime by the vigorous enforcement of the nation's gun laws. The Brady Act, enacted in 1994, requires that all federally licensed gun dealers perform a background check before selling a firearm. It helps us stop convicted felons and other dangerous people from buying guns easily. Today I am announcing a plan to improve the process of background checks on gun buyers that achieves two major objectives:

• The first is to increase prosecutions of those who attempt to purchase guns illegally.

• The second is to improve the accuracy, efficiency and reliability of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

"Just a few weeks ago, President Bush unveiled Project Safe Neighborhoods, a comprehensive national strategy to enforce vigorously existing gun laws. Federal law makes it a felony for convicted felons and other dangerous persons even to possess a gun. Federal law also makes it a felony for convicted felons and other dangerous people to lie about their records in attempting to buy a gun. Violation of these laws carries penalties of up to ten years in prison. Violators can and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"The reality, however, is that Brady Act violations are not being prosecuted adequately. From Brady's enactment in 1994 through June 5^th of this year the FBI has referred 217,000 attempted illegal gun purchases for investigation. Of these, only 294 people have been convicted. We can, we should and we must do a better job of preserving the integrity of our guns laws in the eyes of the citizens who are expected to obey them.

"Today I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to prosecute to the fullest extent practicable persons who attempt to purchase guns illegally. To provide prosecutors with the tools they need, the Department of Justice is targeting 113 new prosecutors in the areas with the highest levels of gun crime. In some areas we will double or triple the number of federal prosecutors devoted to gun crimes. Phoenix, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, New York, northern Ohio, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, Houston, Eastern Virginia and Milwaukee - all these areas are receiving needed assistance to prosecute Brady Act violations and other gun crimes.

"Secondly today I am issuing a series of directives to make the National Instant Criminal Background Check System a more reliable and efficient tool to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous persons.

"I am directing the FBI to increase to the fullest extent practicable the percentage of NICS checks that result in an immediate response of "proceed" or "denied" -- while the dealer is still on the telephone. Currently, 71 percent of calls are given an immediate response. I am directing the FBI to explore ways to increase this number to 90 percent, the highest level practicable given the current criminal history records in the system.

"The background check system is only as good as the criminal records it contains. Many of the over 62 million criminal history records note an arrest but do not specify how the arrest was resolved -- making it impossible for NICS examiners to know the outcome of the case. The Brady law permits transfer of a gun if no disposition record can be found within three days. A recent FBI study found that, between April and December of 2000, over 45,000 applicants with an open-arrest record were allowed to purchase guns by default. Improving the criminal history records will decrease this number and speed up the approval process for law-biding purchasers. I am therefore also directing the Bureau of Justice Statistics to conduct a comprehensive, state-by-state review of missing or incomplete criminal history records, including adjudication records of cases of mental illness and domestic violence. Based on that review, the BJS will target its grants to those states where improving records repository would have the most impact on the background check system.

"Finally, today I signed and sent to be published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rule Making. This proposal would require States that conduct background checks for gun purchases transmit the results of those checks to NICS in a timely manner in order to ensure more accurate records. In addition, we are proposing mechanisms that ensure the integrity of the NICS system, and our ability to audit it, while at the same time fulfilling the mandate of the Brady law to protect the privacy of lawful gun purchasers. Real-time auditing is the standard recommended by the computer industry to give us the clearest and most accurate understanding of the performance of the NICS system. Records of lawful, approved gun purchases will be kept until the next business day after the transfer is approved to allow real-time audits to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the results. When this proposal is adopted I will direct that the FBI conduct such real-time audits everyday, to the extent practicable, to protect the reliability of the system.

"Additionally, to assist the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco in enforcing the gun laws, we are proposing that NICS be authorized to create individual audit logs for firearms dealers that ATF has identified for inspection. Finally, the proposal would also create a new category of recording transactions that are "unresolved" within the current three-day window provided by law. This category would allow NICS to follow up on the transaction, to update the system records, and to better keep guns out of criminal hands.

"Today, we are sending a clear message: gun crime means hard time. People who violate federal gun laws will find a determined adversary in this Administration, this Department and in each United States Attorney. With their commitment to enforce guns laws aggressively, and the needed improvements to the national criminal background check system, we will reduce gun crime in America.

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