Feds consider new gun regs
November 20, 2013, 12:18 pm
By Julian Hattem
The Obama administration is working on new gun control regulations that
would target stolen and missing weapons.
Police have a hard time tracking
firearms that disappear from gun shops, which “just feeds the sort of already
large and existing secondary market on guns,” said Sam Hoover, a staff attorney
with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
It is unclear precisely what the
draft regulations, drawn up by the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and under review at the
White House’s regulations office, would do.
The ATF would not comment on the
draft rule, since it has not yet been released to the public, but a description
provided by the White House asserts that it would target cases where guns go
missing “in transit.”
Currently, gun dealers with a
federal license are required to tell federal agents after they discover a
firearm has gone missing, but they aren’t required to do routine checks.
“They can discover a gun missing
today and have no idea when it went missing, which really makes that
information useless to law enforcement,” said Chelsea Parsons, associate
director of crime and firearms policy at the Center for American Progress.
The White House office has 90 days
to review the proposed rule before releasing it to the public and allowing them
to comment.
The draft rule was sent to the
White House five months after the ATF completed a report that found that more
than 190,000 firearms were estimated to have been lost or stolen last year. The
report was one of 23 executive actions President Obama announced in January to
reduce gun violence in the wake of
last year’s shooting in Newtown,
Conn.
That report helped to shine light
on an often unseen corner of the gun market, supporters of stricter gun laws
say.
“I think that in the area of guns
and gun violence and gun commerce, we have had a complete lack of data and a
lack of information,” said Parsons.
She wants the ATF to be able to
take stronger action to monitor and track guns that go missing.
Since 2004, an appropriations
rider has prevented the ATF from requiring gun dealers to do periodic checks.
Gun rights advocates say that the measure protects innocent victims of crimes
from punishment by the government.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATF)
Stephen McHale was
the chief counsel for the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and is a partner at Patton Boggs LLP.
Note: Karen Marangi was
a lobbyist at Patton Boggs LLP, and
is a principal at the Raben Group.
Melody
C. Barnes was a principal at the Raben
Group, the domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, the EVP for the Center for American Progress, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Raben
Group is the lobby firm for the NAACP
Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, and was the lobby firm for the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund, a board member for the American Constitution Society, is a trustee at the Morehouse School of Medicine, and the attorney
general at the U.S. Department of
Justice for the Barack Obama
administration.
Robert
Raben was a director at the American
Constitution Society, an assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, is the president of the Raben Group, and a director at the Alliance for Justice.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the American Constitution Society, and the Alliance for Justice.
George
Soros was a supporter for the Center
for American Progress, a contributor for the American Bridge 21st Century, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, is the founder
& chairman for the Open Society
Foundations, and the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin Hood Foundation, and Refugees International.
Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend is the chair for the
American Bridge 21st Century, and a trustee at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, a donor for the Robin
Hood Foundation, is the New York (NY) mayor, and a co-chair for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
NRA-ILA (Mayors Against Illegal Guns)
The Truth About "Mayors
Against Illegal Guns"
Frank
G. Wisner is a director emeritus at Refugees
International, and the foreign affairs adviser at Patton Boggs LLP.
Stephen McHale is
a partner at Patton Boggs LLP, and was
the chief counsel for the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
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