Ashcroft Blocks FBI Access to Gun Records Critics Call Attorney General

December 7, 2001

The FBI will not be permitted to compare the names of suspected terrorists against federal gun purchase records, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the Senate yesterday, offering no encouragement to senators willing to guarantee the FBI the authority to do so.

Defending his decision to block the FBI from using gun documents in its terror probe, Ashcroft said the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to purchase a weapon at a gun store.

Some critics charged that Ashcroft's strong opposition to gun control is interfering with his role as the government's top cop. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing him of "handcuffing" the FBI, pressed him unsuccessfully to say why he did not seek access to gun
records when he claimed expanded investigatory powers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked Ashcroft whether he wants the power to review gun records in the fight against terrorism, Ashcroft replied that he would not comment on a "hypothetical."

Bush administration officials said information collected by gun stores for use in background checks was not intended for other law enforcement purposes. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration is following a regulation signed in January by Attorney General Janet Reno, who ruled that records can be used only to audit the background check system.

Such regulations are easily changed, countered Clinton administration officials and other critics. They pointed out that Ashcroft has issued an order permitting federal investigators to listen to attorney-client conversations and sought to lengthen the time illegal immigrants can be held before being charged. At his request, Congress has granted many other powers in recent months.

"If their point is just that there's a regulation that prohibits this, there is no doubt whatsoever that the attorney general could, on a moment's notice, issue a revised regulation," said Randolph G. Moss, an assistant attorney general under Reno.

The attorney general's decision to block the FBI's access to the records runs counter to a Justice Department policy advisory issued in 1996. When the FBI asked about access to the gun files, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard L. Shiffrin wrote that the records could be
used by law enforcement agencies conducting investigations.

"This document underscores the Justice Department's authority to use the [records] as a tool to combat terror," said former Justice lawyer Mathew Nosanchuk, now at the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based gun control group. "Instead, they are rejecting their own authority and acting as lawyers for the gun lobby. Their arguments are predictable gun lobby arguments, but they are unfathomable law enforcement arguments."

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Ashcroft was criticized by Democrats for overstepping his authority and infringing civil liberties. Then, when some of the same senators said he had not gone far enough in using the gun records, Ashcroft balked.

"I don't want to hear two messages from this committee . . . that you want me to enforce some laws and not other laws . . . or respect some rights and not other rights," Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft is a strong supporter of the National Rifle Association who once voted as a Missouri senator for the "immediate destruction" of the purchase records of people who had been permitted to buy a gun. This year, he proposed reducing the required time for preserving the records to 24 hours from 90 days.

Justice spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said law enforcement authorities may consult the records of buyers who have been disqualified from purchasing a gun. She said the department believes that other customers' records, which include addresses and gun store locations, are off-limits.

The FBI wants access to all records. An agent said yesterday that a record of a gun purchase could give a time and place where a person had been, as well as the prospective purchaser's possible address.

"This is a sticky one for us," the agent said. "The Justice Department sees things differently than we do."

On Sept. 16, the FBI began checking a list of 186 people against the gun records, an FBI spokesman said. The search yielded two matches, or "hits," meaning that the individuals had been approved to buy guns.

But the next day, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh ruled that continued use of the records was prohibited by law. In October, the FBI sought to check a smaller list of names against the gun purchase documents and was again refused, the spokesman said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Ashcroft's position was contradictory and left him feeling "a little befuddled." Ashcroft had been "looking for tools in every direction," Schumer said. But regarding questions about illegal immigrants buying guns, "this administration becomes as weak as a wet noodle."

A senior Justice official said neither the FBI nor criminal prosecutors requested a specific change in the Brady gun control law or its underlying regulations to allow the use of the purchase records.

"Nobody even suggested that this was a critical thing," the official said. "There was no suggestion, no indication and no request that we pursue a regulatory or legislative fix on this. There was no cry of hampering the investigation."

Staff writer Dan Eggen and researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.