ViperJeff
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From by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
He loves it when we share
BIDS v. NICS
If we must have gun-buyer background checks to stop criminals,
at least do it without compiling massive records on the innocent.
A simple system called BIDS can do this,
and at far less cost than NICS.
Basically, BIDS distributes the list of hardcore prohibited possessors
to federally licensed firearm dealers. Dealers check their customers
against the computerized list to lockout illegal sales.
This maintains the privacy of innocent citizens and
eliminates the potential for illegal government registries.
It's simple. It's cheap. It works. Do it.
BIDS: “Blind Identification Database System”
by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
It sticks in my craw, and I know I’m not alone in recognizing, that under the guise of reducing violence, the Brady handgun violence prevention law has put every retail gun sale in the country under control of our federalized leaders.
The idea that I need federal permission to buy private property is outrageous to me. It is not what I think of when I think of freedom. The fact that the property could be used dangerously, or that criminals use the property illegally and immorally, does not adequately justify the usurpation of my freedoms, as it has done.
Despite the seemingly noble intent of the law to restrict criminals, criminals are largely unaffected. Criminals who want to arm themselves, which after all is what criminals do, simply arm themselves anyway, as they have done since time immemorial, and laugh at the law.
The biggest net effect of the law seems to be record keeping on innocent purchasers, to the tune of about ten million records a year. We are assured in law and in public statements from our federalized leaders that the records are not permanent, so they can’t be used against us. Few people believe that. There is no way to tell for sure. Past history suggests it’s false.
The next biggest effect is perhaps a federal jobs program. Precise figures are unavailable, but when the program was initiated, 900 clerks were hired to sit in FBI paid-for cubicles, answer phone calls from firearm dealers nationwide, and type the names of prospective buyers into a database for storage. And a background check. Countless support and technical jobs were created to run the FBI’s long-sought single-location citizen checking system. The Clarksville, W. Va., facility is now the heart of all FBI people tracking for the entire planet.
Initially, attorney general Janet Reno actually had the gall to say the quarter-billion-dollar computer they had built for the task could not erase records at all, let alone instantly, as the enabling act required. How dumb do they think we are. This from the team that now assures us records are not kept.
A minor effect, but an important one, is that the requirement to use the NICS background check system before a sale is completed, gives those in control the power to turn off gun sales nationwide (or regionally) at the flip of a switch. As they have done numerous times in the past, the system is turned off for maintenance, or for tests, or it goes down as such systems do, and gun sales grind to a complete halt until the feds turn the system back on. Again, not what I think of when I think of freedom.
The law prohibits the use of NICS if it is not running (18 USC §922(t)(5)), a pretty simple requirement. That provision was inserted by the NRA, who wisely sought such a safety valve in case the system was never built, a cool trick that would have simply ended gun sales permanently right then and there. (NRA and many others have little faith that the anti-rights forces will play fair.) But BATFE and the FBI have completely intimidated gun dealers into stopping business when the system is down (or turned off), under threat of revoking their licenses. Terrified dealers, who are quasi-government agents, comply despite the law on their side.
Indeed, some criminals, along with scads of innocent people who have common names similar to criminals (such as Jose Rodriguez, Tyrell Jackson or Joe Smith), and people whose records are faulty for a dozen good reasons, are actually denied buying firearms, paying the taxes and supporting their local merchants.
Of the criminals who are denied though, virtually none are arrested, according to the FBI, BATFE and the White House (I checked on this personally, they all gave the same answer) because: The Brady law is neither designed nor intended to increase the annual number of federal prosecutions. Don’t that beat all. There are other fascinating reasons too:
Brady Arrests Lacking
Any doubts you may have harbored about the true intent of the law may be found in those reasons, plus the jobs “created,” the contracts issued (calls are now handled by contract call centers), and of course the valuable innocent-and-guilty-person tracking features.
Rest of Story
Gun Laws of America
He loves it when we share
BIDS v. NICS
If we must have gun-buyer background checks to stop criminals,
at least do it without compiling massive records on the innocent.
A simple system called BIDS can do this,
and at far less cost than NICS.
Basically, BIDS distributes the list of hardcore prohibited possessors
to federally licensed firearm dealers. Dealers check their customers
against the computerized list to lockout illegal sales.
This maintains the privacy of innocent citizens and
eliminates the potential for illegal government registries.
It's simple. It's cheap. It works. Do it.
BIDS: “Blind Identification Database System”
by Alan Korwin, Author
Gun Laws of America
It sticks in my craw, and I know I’m not alone in recognizing, that under the guise of reducing violence, the Brady handgun violence prevention law has put every retail gun sale in the country under control of our federalized leaders.
The idea that I need federal permission to buy private property is outrageous to me. It is not what I think of when I think of freedom. The fact that the property could be used dangerously, or that criminals use the property illegally and immorally, does not adequately justify the usurpation of my freedoms, as it has done.
Despite the seemingly noble intent of the law to restrict criminals, criminals are largely unaffected. Criminals who want to arm themselves, which after all is what criminals do, simply arm themselves anyway, as they have done since time immemorial, and laugh at the law.
The biggest net effect of the law seems to be record keeping on innocent purchasers, to the tune of about ten million records a year. We are assured in law and in public statements from our federalized leaders that the records are not permanent, so they can’t be used against us. Few people believe that. There is no way to tell for sure. Past history suggests it’s false.
The next biggest effect is perhaps a federal jobs program. Precise figures are unavailable, but when the program was initiated, 900 clerks were hired to sit in FBI paid-for cubicles, answer phone calls from firearm dealers nationwide, and type the names of prospective buyers into a database for storage. And a background check. Countless support and technical jobs were created to run the FBI’s long-sought single-location citizen checking system. The Clarksville, W. Va., facility is now the heart of all FBI people tracking for the entire planet.
Initially, attorney general Janet Reno actually had the gall to say the quarter-billion-dollar computer they had built for the task could not erase records at all, let alone instantly, as the enabling act required. How dumb do they think we are. This from the team that now assures us records are not kept.
A minor effect, but an important one, is that the requirement to use the NICS background check system before a sale is completed, gives those in control the power to turn off gun sales nationwide (or regionally) at the flip of a switch. As they have done numerous times in the past, the system is turned off for maintenance, or for tests, or it goes down as such systems do, and gun sales grind to a complete halt until the feds turn the system back on. Again, not what I think of when I think of freedom.
The law prohibits the use of NICS if it is not running (18 USC §922(t)(5)), a pretty simple requirement. That provision was inserted by the NRA, who wisely sought such a safety valve in case the system was never built, a cool trick that would have simply ended gun sales permanently right then and there. (NRA and many others have little faith that the anti-rights forces will play fair.) But BATFE and the FBI have completely intimidated gun dealers into stopping business when the system is down (or turned off), under threat of revoking their licenses. Terrified dealers, who are quasi-government agents, comply despite the law on their side.
Indeed, some criminals, along with scads of innocent people who have common names similar to criminals (such as Jose Rodriguez, Tyrell Jackson or Joe Smith), and people whose records are faulty for a dozen good reasons, are actually denied buying firearms, paying the taxes and supporting their local merchants.
Of the criminals who are denied though, virtually none are arrested, according to the FBI, BATFE and the White House (I checked on this personally, they all gave the same answer) because: The Brady law is neither designed nor intended to increase the annual number of federal prosecutions. Don’t that beat all. There are other fascinating reasons too:
Brady Arrests Lacking
Any doubts you may have harbored about the true intent of the law may be found in those reasons, plus the jobs “created,” the contracts issued (calls are now handled by contract call centers), and of course the valuable innocent-and-guilty-person tracking features.
Rest of Story