January 4, 1999 - BOSTON GLOBE
CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) - Background checks would be required of those who buy firearms at gun shows under legislation to be sponsored by U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy.
Kennedy, who begins his third term in the House, announced legislation Sunday that would require background checks and purchases to be recorded at gun shows.
A second bill he plans to sponsor would restore a three-to-five day waiting period for gun purchases as a backup to instant FBI computer background checks that recently have gone into effect.
Currently, there are no federal laws regulating sales at the estimated 5,000 gun shows held annually in the country.
Kennedy, who made the announcement at the Cumberland Police Station, said that gun shows provide a loophole for people prohibited from buying firearms elsewhere to circumvent federal law.
``A number of my colleagues in the South say it is a real problem,'' Kennedy said Sunday.
He cited the examples of David Koresh, who bought hundreds of weapons at shows for the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and Timothy McVeigh, who bought and sold weapons at shows before the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
The legislation would make the individual hosting the gun show responsible for obtaining a license, conducting background checks, and recording sales. Violators face penalties and prison terms.
Kennedy believes the bill is likely to overcome objections ``because there's such a clear violation of the nature and the spirit of the law we have on the books already.''
A 1997 Justice Department study found that an estimated 40 percent of gun transfers are made in unregulated markets such as gun shows, he said.
The second bill would restore a waiting period that was dropped when the Brady Law expired. Nineteen states including Rhode Island established their own waiting period.
Kennedy said the bill would enable state and local police to check additional crime records. Repeated domestic violence calls might not be recorded on federal computer files, he said.
The bills are the latest gun control measure to be sponsored by Kennedy, whose uncles President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy were shot to death.
) Copyright 1998 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc.
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for comment and/or criticism; non-profit research; and educational purposes only.
Ref. URL: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
***********************************************
* mi-rkba e-mail discussion list (FREE) *
* *
* FREE SPEECH AND FIREARMS... *
* THE POWER TOOLS OF FREEDOM *
* *
* listowner: Arlynn Afton *
* (616) 243-4790 ccw@triton.net *
* *
* To subscribe: *
* Message: subscribe mi-rkba *
* *
* To unsubscribe: majordomo@webnexus.com *
* Message: unsubscribe mi-rkba *
* *
* To post a message to everyone on the list, *
* send to: mi-rkba@webnexus.com *
* *
* Civility rules. *
* Free speech, not free libel. *
* *
* Anyone violating the rules of this list will*
* receive a private warning. A second offense*
* will result in a permanent un-subscribe from*
* the list, which will be posted to the list. *
* Listowner is not responsible for the content*
* of other's postings to this list. *
***********************************************
# # #
-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@mail.netquest.com), January 07, 1999