UPDATE
IS THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REGISTERING GUNOWNERS?
February 1998
Readers of this Pennsylvania Sportsmen's New may recall the October/November 1996 issue where the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League reported the discovery of the U.S. Justice Department's F.I.S.T computerized gun owner database. This P.C. based computer program is still being used by the U.S. Justice Department to collect information on you, your guns, and write that information to a database. Since that initial report the U.S. Justice Department has established FIST coordinators in all fifty states to coordinate the collection of information on all purchasers of firearms.
In 1995 the FIST database was given free to all Chief Law Enforcement Officers (CLEO) through out this country. The Justice Department encouraged them to use the program to help the Justice Department identify the number of guns purchased and processed under the Brady Law. Then send certain information to Washington.
The entry screens for FIST are designed to enter the names, address, social security number, type of firearm purchased, the dealer who sold the firearm and the serial number of the firearm. Not only is this program designed to collect information on all handgun purchasers, it has the capabilities to be expanded to purchases of shotguns and rifles when the government will conduct background checks on long guns by the end of 1998. Also everyone who has a license to carry could be recorded in this database.
The program allows the CLEO’s to build a database of all of the gun dealers in his jurisdiction. FIST then has provisions to link the purchaser of a particular firearm to the dealer from which it was purchased.
While the Justice Department reminds the CLEO’s that under the Brady Act information collected to conduct the background check is to be destroyed after 20 days, there is no guarantee that the purging of that data is being done. Beside, computer experts know that when data is placed on a computer disk that data is never really deleated. It is still present in a different form.
NRA BOARD DEMANDS ILA INVESTIGATE AND EXPOSE THE "F.I.S.T" DATABASE
In September of 1996 NRA Board Member Mike Slavonic from Pennsylvania, made a presentation to the NRA Legislative Policy Committee graphically demonstrating the capabilities of the FIST database. (See the ACSL’s web site http://www.nauticom.net/www/acsl / for images of the FIST entry screens) For some unknown reason both NRA President Marion Hammer, chair of that committee, and Tanya Metaska did not stay for the presentation. Nevertheless, the Executive Director of ILA, Tanya Metaska, was given disketts containing a copy of the FIST program to investigate herself. Slavonic was assured that ILA was going to bring FIST to the attention of Congress.
By the February 1997 NRA Board meeting nothing was done. Just prior to that meeting, Slavonic obtained a copy of two U.S. Justice Department documents downloaded from the government’s Internet web site. The first was a report titled, "Survey of State Procedures Related to Firearms Sales" (SSPRFS), and the second a Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin titled "Presale Firearms Checks."
In the "Background" introduction in the SSPRFS, the Justice Department explained that "This study is part of an ongoing Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) project referred to as FIST (Firearm Inquires STatistics) being conducted by the Regional Justice Information Service (REJIS) of St. Louise Missouri. The purpose of the study is to provide an overview of how the firearm check procedures work in the various states to help in measuring the impact of the "Brady Act". (Copies of that report can be obtained from the BJS web site http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/)
The "Background" also revealed that the study was to be in three parts. "Part A. Firearms Inquiry Statistical Technique is to focus on the process and procedures an agency follows to review an application to purchase a firearm. Part B, Firearms Inquiry Survey Tracking, focuses on individual transactions involving the initial rejection of an application. Part C. Firearms Inquiry Statistical Tally, shows the total number of applications processed and resulting decisions".
The report explains that "Most of the States responded to Part A but declined to submit part B or C until BJS-supported automated processing software was developed by REJIS. The BJS software was released to the states in December 1995, and data concerning the number of applications being processed will shortly become available on a regular basis."
This report also identified the FIST coordinators for each of the fifty states. The address for the FIST Coordinator for Pennsylvania is: Ernest R. Spittler, Bureau of Records & Information Services, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, Pa., which is the Pennsylvania State Police. Just exactly what is the need for FIST coordinators in each of the fifty states is not known. The data obtained from FIST is collected by County Sheriffs and is sent directly to the U.S. Justice Department. However, under Pennsylvania Law all background checks performed by the Sheriff are conducted through the Pennsylvania State Police. As a result of the passage of Act 17 in Pennsylvania, that law allows the Pennsylvania State police to maintain information on the purchasers of handguns for ever. This loophole in state law was intentional. It was agreed to during the passage of Act 17. Documents acquired by the ACSL clearly prove this. While the CLEO's are forced to dispose of the data they collect. The law allows the State Police to continue to retain that data. However state law prohibits the sheriffs from maintaining a database of gun owners. For the State Police to act as a coordinator for F.I.S.T they would be in violation of thier own laws. But the Governor has not put a stop to this activity. Also the State's Attorney General, Mike Fisher, who is NRA endorsed, is aware of the F.I.S.T. database. Copies were given to his office by the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League requesting an investigation. We are awaiting the results of his investigation.
In the U.S. Justice Department Bulletin titled "Presale Firearm Checks" it analyzed the number of prohibited persons prevented from purchasing handguns under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The bulletin explains that "Data for the first half of 1996 were collected under the BJS Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) program."
At the February 1997 meeting of the NRA Legislative Polity Committee Slavonic reported that is was clear that FIST was still operational. Then Slavonic, along with directors Neal Knox and Weldon Clark insisted that the executive director of ILA act on the illegal collection of data using the FIST computer program. They drafted a resolution that directed NRA-ILA to actively expose the FIST database. That resolution, which received unanimous support from the Board the following Saturday, read as follows. "Moved, that in accordance with long-standing NRA policy opposing firearms registration laws, NRA-ILA is directed to actively expose and oppose efforts of the federal government to create and maintain records on firearms and firearms owners through programs such as the insidious Firearms Inquiry Statistical Tracking (F.I.S.T) program being implemented by the Justice Department."
One year later the F.I.S.T program is flourishing and collecting the names and addresses of everyone who has purchased handguns. On December 1 ,1998, when the government implements instant check nationwide the names and address of long gun purchasers will also be recorded in the FIST database. Not to mention databasing the names and address of all individual with carry licenses.
If we are going to stop the FIST program from collecting the names and addrdess of gun owners we need a strong grassroots response. We must take the responsibility for defending our gun rights We must demand that Congress prohibit the Justice Department from the continued implementation of FIST.