Ashcroft Hypocrisy

[David Morris]

Ashcroft Hypocrisy:
Indefinite detention - yes.
Gun purchase background check - no.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/national/06GUNS.html

the Justice Department has refused to let the F.B.I. check its records to 
determine whether any of the 1,200 people detained after the Sept. 11 
attacks had bought guns, F.B.I. and Justice Department officials say.

The department made the decision in October after the F.B.I. asked to 
examine the records it maintains on background checks to see if any 
detainees had purchased guns in the United States.

Mindy Tucker, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the request was 
rejected after several senior officials decided that the law creating the 
background check system did not permit the use of the records to investigate 
individuals.

Ms. Tucker did not elaborate on the decision, but it is in keeping with 
Attorney General John Ashcroft's strong support of gun rights and his 
longstanding opposition to the government's use of background check records. 
In 1998, as a senator from Missouri, Mr. Ashcroft voted for an amendment to 
the Brady gun-control law to destroy such records immediately after checking 
the background of a prospective gun buyer. That amendment was defeated.


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