Report to the Attorney General on Systems for Identifying ...

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Report to the Attorney General on Systems for Identifying Felons Who Attempt to Purchase Firearms

October 1989 Task Force on Felon Identification in Firearm Sales

Assistant Attorney General Office of Justice Programs Chairman Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau of Justice Assistance Bureau of Justice Statistics Federal Bureau of Investigation Immigration and Naturalization Service National Institute of Justice U.S. Marshals Service

Report to the Attorney General on Systems for Identifying Felons Who Attempt to Purchase Firearms

October 1989

Task Force on Felon Identification in Firearm Sales

Assistant Attorney General Office of Justice Programs Chairman

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau of Justice Assistance Bureau of Justice Statistics Federal Bureau of Investigation Immigration and Naturalization Service National Institute of Justice U.S. Marshals Service

Foreword

The Attorney General is required under Section 6213 of the AntiDrug Abuse Act of 1988 to report to Congress by 18 November 1989 on a system for the immediate and accurate identification of felons who attempt to purchase firearms. Pursuant to this mandate, the Attorney General requested that the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) establish a Task Force on Felon Identification in Firearm Sales to develop a range of options that would comport with the statute.

After preliminary research by components of the Departments of Justice and Treasury, the Task Force held its first meeting on 14 March. I cannot overstate my appreciation for the superlative efforts of all of the Task Force representatives, especially the staff of OJP's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which coordinated production of this Report. Under the direction of Dr. Joseph M. Bessette, BJS staff invested considerable talent and expertise, and many evenings and weekends, to produce this document.

The goal of the Task Force was to identify the entire range of issues that ought to be considered before implementinga felon identification system. The Task Force published its draft report on 26 June 1989 in the F e d e r a l R e g i s t e r for a thirty-day public comment period. We were pleased to receive more than one hundred comments from members of Congress, State and local officials, public interest groups, and private citizens. A broad range of views was presented. One law enforcement group, the Police Executive Research Forum, conducted a survey of its members on the options. The comments not only assisted the Task Force in improving the draft report, but will also be of great value to decisionmakers in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the various options presented. The Task Force was most gratified by the general consensus among commenters that the draft report presented a thorough and objective review of a most complex subject.

President Bush has said that loopholes that "allow deadly weapons to fall into deadly hands" must be closed. The biggest obstacle to achieving this goal is that so many of the guns used in the commission of crimes are obtained on the streets and not through licensed dealers. To deal with the problem of guns used in the commission of crimes, the President has proposed a comprehensive approach, includingenhanced penalties for criminals using firearms. The President has also recognized that one barrier to an immediate and accurate felon identification system is incompleteness in criminal history reporting. The President has called upon the Federal, State,

Systemsfor Identifying Felons Who Attempt to Purchase Firearms iii

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