"F I S T"

THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARMENT'S COMPUTERIZED FIREARMS DATABASE

By Michael J. Slavonic, Jr

Charirman Legislative Committee

Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League

In 1787, after the delegates in Philadelphia signed the new United States Constitution, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin. "Well, Doctor," she asked, "what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin replied "A republic, if you can keep it."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

Just when you thought you were safe from having information on yourself and that of the firearms you purchased entered in to a central computerized gun database comes the Bureau of Justice Statistics a division of the U.S. Justice Department with a computer program designed to do just that. The Allegheny County Sportsmen's League (ACSL) has this time acquired a fully operational database program which was developed for the U.S. Justice Department called "FIST". "FIST" is an acronym which stands for Firearms Inquiry Statistical Tracking. Who’s firearms are they tracking -- yours. Yes, in spite of the ruling by Common Pleas Court in Pittsburgh that such a scheme was in violation of state and federal law, the U.S. Justice Department is confident that they have the statutory authority under federal law to to ahead with "FIST".

 

In comparison, what the ACSL uncovered in August of 1995 was just a proposal to develop a gun database for the City of Pittsburgh that could be used nationally. "FIST is already a fully developed computer program that will collect information on you, your guns, and write that information to a database. Once in the database the information can be archived or the records can be sent to Washington. This program has been made available to all Chief Law Enforcement Officers (CLEO) through out the country inorder for them to collect statistics on the number of guns pruchased under the Brady Law. The program is made available free all CLEOs for them to collect information on you, the type and serial numbers of the guns you purchase (handguns, rifles or shotguns). In addition, the program also would be used to collect information on who applies and are granted concealed weapons permits. The program also provides for storing the necessary information on all the dealers in the CLEO's jurisdiction so that this information can be linked directly to each firearm purchased. The program is designed to work in conjunction with the Brady law background check especially when the Brady instant check come on line in 1998 when all firearms purchased must go through the national instant check system.

 

The final language in the Brady Law approved by the U.S. Senate has a provision requiring the U.S. Attorney General to "establish a national instant criminal background check system that any licensee may contact, by telephone or by other electronic means in addition to the telephone, for information, to be supplied immediately, on whether receipt of a firearm by prospective transferee would violate section 922 of title 18." The U.S. Attorney General was given the authority to "develop such computer software, design and obtain such telecommunications and computer hardware, and employ such personnel, as are necessary to establish and operate the system in accordance with this section." These provisions are very vague and it gives the AG great latitude in developing the system. Presently the CLEOs who administers the background check under the Brady 5 day waiting period are primarily the county sheriffs. This program indicates that the AG may be looking to the CLEO’s again to conduct the instant check when it comes on line in 1998.

 

"FIST" was developed by the REgional Justice Information Service referred to in the documentation as the REJIS Commission for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in Washington D.C. The developers of this program used Microsoft's Access database, a database program developed by the Microsoft Corporation. This database program is included in the popular Microsoft Office a package of software widely used through the country. "FIST" is made up of a series of entry screens allowing for imputing of the name, address and social security number of each applicant who applies to purchase or transfer any handgun, rifle shotgun, or who makes application for a concealed weapons permit. Also in the "Applicant’s personal Info" screen there is a series of buttons at the bottom which provide for entry of "Dealer Info, Rejection Info, Handgun Info and Misc. Info".

 

 

In the "Dealer Info" the CLEO enters information on the dealer who submits the request for a background check and the dealer is linked with the applicant and the information on the firearm. The CLEO also enters you driver’s license number. How the CLEO received the inquiry from the dealer, and the disposition of the background check is also recorded.

 

 

Selecting the "Handgun Info" button present the CLEO with a screen that allows for entry on the gun purchased (Make, Model, Caliber, Barrel Length and serial number). While the screen is titled "Handgun Info" the same information of Rifles and shotguns can also be entered if a rifle or shotgun and selected as the firearm being purchased in the Applicant’s Info screen.

 

 

There are also data screens to record information on the disposition of the background check. The Government wants to know whether the purchase was approved, and if not, what was the reason for the denial. They want to know whether the purchaser who was denied the purchase challenged the action in court, and whether there was any court action, or whether the challenge was administratively resolved.

 

The program documentation explains that the purpose of the program is to "support the CLEO in their normal daily operations. At the same time the data is being entered and used by the CLEO the information that is needed by BJS is being collected automatically without any special forms or procedures being required. The data that will be used for statistical purposes is generated by the CLEO by simply clicking on the appropriate button." The way this would work is when a handgun, rifle or shotgun is purchased each dealer must fill out a federal form 4473, the Brady Form and the state record of purchase collecting all of the necessary information on the gun and the purchaser. The dealer either places a phone call to the CLEO, or sends a fax, to request the instant background check. All of the information collected by the CLEO is entered into the database through the FIST programs entry screens. Every day the database is backed up onto a diskette. Each month this data is then sent to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in Washington on a diskette, or via a modem. There this information could be entered into a master database. All this information is handled in electronic format, no paperwork involved.

 

 

REJIS explains that the only information that the Bureau of Justice Statistics requires is the number of firearm transfers, how many were approved or disapproved and the reasons for rejection.

They explain that all of the data on the applicant remains with the CLEO and it remains the responsibility of the CLEO to insure that it is deposed of in the appropriate manner as the law governing the CLEO require. But that begs an answer to the question, "why then collect the information on the purchaser and the firearm in the first place if it isn't to be used for developing a national registration?" Remember that in December of 1993 President Clinton charged Attorney General Janet Reno with developing a means to establish a national registration scheme. Can "FIST" be used for that purpose, you bet it can.

 

 

While the Brady Law only allow the CLEO's to retain the data for only 20 days, who is going to do the investigations to insure your rights are protected? Pennsylvania’s Act 17 made permenant the collection of information of the purchase of handguns, with long gun coming in 1997. There is nothing to stop the CLEO to backup the database on a diskette and transfer it to another database. Who is going to stop the Justice Department from requiring the whole database? Our source tells us that the BJS requested the complete database file.

 

Anyone who understands databases know that this information is portable to other databases or other file formats. For example the database can be backed up to a disk and imported into another database like FoxPro or Dbase III or IV very easily. The database can also be imported into a spreadsheet like Lotus 123 or Excel. This type of database translation is done everyday.

 

Now the program documentation warns that the CLEO's should pay particular close attention to both federal and state laws governing what records that they are allow to keep in the FIST database. They instruct the CLEO's on the program's provides features for purging personal information like the name, address and serial numbers of the applicant. However, the documentation also points out that the purge options allows for overriding the purge feature. In fact the default option is "No purging allowed".

 

During the Democratic National Convention President Clinton allow Sarah Brady to give a prime time speech touting the so-called success of the Brady Law which she claimed was designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. What most Americans don’t know is that once instant check goes into effect in 1998 the purpose of Brady could be used to eventually keep guns out of the hands of everyone by registering everyone who purchases a handgun, rifle and shotgun and who obtain concealed weapons permits in a computerized database like "FIST". The most difficult problem with a gun ban is locating the firearms. FIST could solve that problem. As Charles Morgan, a director of the ACLU's Washington D.C. office has been quoted as saying "That even if he is in agreement with the National Rifle Association, the only purpose of registration is for confiscation by one administration or another."

 

The instant check provisions in Brady could be our down fall. We have this instant check provision becasue former executive vice president Warrin Cassidy and former ILA executive director Jim Baker agreed to Brady with this provision in place. In February of 1994 the NRA board of directors, realizing that instant check could be used to register gun owners, passed a resolution instructing ILA not to enter into any instant check systems, unfortunally that call was not heeded in Pennsylvania.

 

President Clinton has made gun control an issue in this year’s election for President. Bob Dole has distanced himself from gun owners with his statement against the repeal of the semiautomatic ban. As a result we have only one choice at our disposal to protect our right to private ownership of firearms and that is to elect a pro-gun Congress. This will require every gun owner to get involved in races that have strong pro-gun candidates. We must sent a signal to who ever is elected President that the gun grabbers agenda will not be advanced one more step.

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