-=Continued from previous post=- 
     But the BATF regs require all checks to be run through the
Justice Department NICS computer -- at $15 each.  BATF says privacy
is DOJ's concern; DOJ doesn't have BATF's prohibitions against
creating a gun registration system.
     What I cannot understand is why NRA-ILA has not informed the
membership, or even the legislative activists, about the regs.
     Most gunowners are unaware that the permanent phase of the
Brady Act includes long guns.  There have been loud protests from
dealers, hunters and claybirders -- leading to talk on the Hill of
removing that section of law.  Striking any part of an existing gun
law sounds good to me.
     I am working with those who want to strike at that section of
Brady -- and perhaps make broader changes -- before rifle and
shotgun owners go back to sleep.
     While I would like to strike the entire law, I don't think you
could find ten Congressmen willing to do it. 
     On another front, there's an uproar within NRA over the fact
that 1st V.P. Charlton Heston worked with the Lyndon Johnson White
House to extend the 1968 Gun Control Act to include long guns.
     The story first appeared on the Internet, but has since been
verified by LBJ Library documents, the Oct. 1968 Rifleman (P. 10),
former ILA Director Bob Kukla's book and Heston's 1978 book.  Mr.
Heston, who has said he "stands on his record" of support for the
Second Amendment, has thus far refused to say he made a mistake.
     Another NRA uproar stems from a lawsuit filed by ten petition
candidates against NRA's practice of running the Nominating
Committee's report, which a New York Judge found to be in violation
of the NRA Bylaws.  
     The court ordered them not to publish the report; instead NRA
published the names of the petition candidate plaintiffs next to
the ballot.  An angry judge is now considering whether to hold NRA
in contempt of court, and could set aside the Board election.
     Those issues and proposed changes to the Articles of
Incorporation -- including reducing the size of the Board from 76
to 24, requiring more complete reporting of Directors' dealings
with NRA, and setting term limits -- will be decided by voting
members at the June 6 meeting in Philadelphia.  Attend if you can.
     Lastly, after four years of planning, we've sold our home and
will move near Virginia's Bull Run Battlefield in May -- where I
can shoot on my own property!  Because we'll be just off I-66, I
can get to Capitol Hill almost as quickly as from here.
     With all this going on, we've been scrambling to keep our
noses above water.  If you haven't made a recent contribution, we
would surely appreciate it.
                                             Yours for the Second 
Amendment,
                                             Neal Knox
======================================================================
BATF's Brady Regs Stretch New Powers
     BATF's proposed regulations on the permanent "Instant Check"
provisions of the Brady Act, which go into effect Nov. 30 on all
firearms purchases -- including rifles and shotguns -- would
further stretch the Federal powers granted by that law.
     FBI spokesmen have estimated the cost of check will be about
$15 per transaction -- on over 10 million transactions.
     Public comments will be accepted until May 20.
     Despite prohibitions against Social Security numbers being
used for identification, the proposed regulations would request a
buyer's SSN as an "option," supposedly to prevent delay in
transfers due to misidentification of the buyer.
     "Instant Check" was initiated and promoted by NRA as a less-
restrictive alternative to the Brady 7-day waiting period, with
safeguards against records of gun buyers being permanently kept,
but the proposed regulations sidestep any discussion of records
security or privacy, stating that will come in the Justice
Department's regulations.  
     The Justice Department, unlike BATF, is not prohibited from
spending its funds to create a national gun registry.
     Though the law prohibits maintaining computer records on guns
and buyers, Justice Department in 1996 established and sent the
"F.I.S.T." (Firearms Inquiry Statistical Tracking) Windows-based
computer program to several hundred police departments, encouraging
them to maintain records accessible by Federal agencies.
     Some local and state agencies, such as the Ohio Bureau of
Criminal Investigation and Identification, have been caught
maintaining computerized records of Brady purchases despite the
clear prohibition in the law.  No prosecutions have resulted.
     The "Instant Check" (which replaces the five-working day wait,
but can take up to three working days) supposedly was to be carried
out by states which had adopted such purchase requirements, with
the Federal government to conduct checks only if state systems were
inadequate or the state had not implemented the system.  
     NRA-ILA has actively supported passage of state "Instant
Check" laws -- often despite the opposition of local gunowners.
     But the proposed regulations require all purchases to be
cleared through the Justice Department National Instant Criminal
Background Check System (NICS).  Accordingly, buyers in states with
their own checking systems would be required to comply with both,
and pay both fees -- perhaps totaling $30 on a $50 .22 rifle.
     NRA apparently has not alerted its members to the regulations
though almost half of the 90-day comment period has expired.
     States with purchase permit systems are supposedly exempted
from the "Instant Check," but the proposed BATF regulations refuse
to recognize such permits unless issued after a recent NICS
background check.
     Congress specifically exempted return of a person's pawned
firearm from the waiting period under the first phase of Brady, but
BATF is taking the position that a NICS check must be conducted
before a pawnbroker may return a gun to its owner under the
permanent phase. 
     The proposed regulations state that BATF is proposing changes
in the law to require a NICS check within 30 days of the transfer
and to require the check after completion of the Form 4473.  It is
a certainty that Handgun Control Inc. will attempt to continue the
waiting period requirement, and introduce other amendments, if any
such piece of firearms legislation is allowed to move in Congress.
-=Continued in next post=-
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