McCarthy-Dingell HR 297 Threating Gun Owners

GOA Alert: All the gun haters (who have been keeping silent for a while) are now coming out of the closet and into the open. Take the notoriously anti-gun senator from New York -- Chuck Schumer. He has been very,very excited this week. Recent events have given him a platform, and the excuse, to push legislation that he had sponsored years ago --legislation that never got through Congress.

The McCarthy-Dingell HR 297 would require the states to turn over mountains of personal data (on people like you) to the FBI -- any information which according to the Attorney General 's unilateral discretion would be useful in ascertaining who is or is not a "prohibited person." Liberal support for this bill points out an interesting hypocrisy in their loyalties: For six years, congressional Democrats have complained about the Bush administration's efforts to obtain personal information on suspected terrorists without a Court Order. And yet, this bill would allow the FBI to obtain massive amounts of information -- information which dwarfs any records obtained from warrantless searches (or wiretaps) that have been conducted by the Bush Administration on known or suspected terrorists operating in the country. HR 297 would allow the FBI to get this information on honest Americans (like you) even though the required data is much more private and personal than any information obtained thus far by the Bush administration on terrorists. And all of these personal records would be obtained by the FBI with no warrant or judicial or Congressional oversight whatsoever! Get the picture? Spying on terrorists is bad... but spying on honest gun owners is good.

After all, this horrific intrusion on the private lives of all Americans is presumed to be "okay" because it's only being used to bash guns, not to go after terrorists and criminals who are trying to kill us. This information could include your medical, psychological, financial, education, employment, traffic, state tax records and more. We don't even know the full extent of what could be included because HR 297 is so open-ended (view HR 297) . It requires states to provide the NICS system with ALL RECORDS that the Attorney General believes will help the FBI determine who is and who is not a prohibited person. Certainly, an anti-gun AG like Janet Reno would want as many types of records in the system as possible. The provision that would probably lead to the greatest number of' fishing expeditions' is that related to illegal aliens. Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from owning guns. The bill requires all "relevant" data related to who is in this country illegally. But what records pertaining to illegal aliens from the states would be relevant? Perhaps a better question would be, what records are not relevant?

ACTION: Please take a moment to communicate your opposition to HR 297 . Visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Representative a pre-written e-mail message or call your Representative toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.

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