Unilateral Background Checks

Stop crooks and crazies. Leave innocent people alone. Halt “universal” gun registration.

Blind Identification Database System
Blind Identification Database System
Alan Korwin
Alan Korwin

Arizona –  -(Ammoland.com)- Gun owners, rights activists, gun makers, even our much-maligned lobbyists have no desire to see criminals, muslim jihadis and crazies walk into stores and buy guns — despite terrified ravings to the contrary from progressives and the “news” media.

Only unhinged individuals would even suggest such lunatic-fringe ideas.

Yet the way the FBI/NICS background check system is set up to stop bad guys it creates unconstitutional infringements on privacy and dangerous federal power grabs that threatens our liberty. That’s why it earns such fierce resistance. Fix that and we’d all get along better, maybe.

New demands from left-wing partisans for so-called “universal” background checks, which would be even worse, would put the entire universe of legal gun owners’ identities into federal agents’ hands. That’s tyrannical and gun owners want it stopped. Can background checks be done and still maintain a privacy wall between honest retail gun sales and madmen seeking arms? Yes.

Unilateral background checks work like good old fashioned Wanted Posters, but with digital accuracy and efficiency, and should replace the dangerous left-wing “universal” gun-owner registration scheme.

Instead of your neighborhood gun dealers sending millions of names of innocent people every month to the FBI, the FBI should simply send the list of prohibited people to the dealers, where they can be checked locally. Easy.

The BIDS (Blind Identification System) Alternative

The system, designed and described 15 years ago by Brian Puckett and Russ Howard, is elegant — and far cheaper than what we have now. It eliminates the odious gun-registration scheme that has always been central to the NICS master plan, which generates most (but not all) of the resistance. (Government infringement of our rights is a complex topic for another time). The Blind Identification System (BIDS), designed to replace NICS, is described in detail and linked on the home page at GunLaws.com (BIDS v. NICS).

The FBI has little interest in the BIDS system for unilateral checks because it represents a huge reduction in their power. BIDS would cost 90% less because the Justice Dept. wouldn’t need the expensive army of FBI staffers who do the checking. Our firearm stores would simply do it when they make sales.

The FBI claims they have to check the NCIC and III criminal databases, but the NICS Index of prohibited people is the mainstay of the system. The tiny percentage of difficult cases and unresolved dispositions can be handled by a skeleton FBI crew. No bureaucracy wants to see its staff — and its budget — shrink, even if freedom grows as a result. Bureaucratic stonewalling would be a serious problem to overcome, and there are some technology issues as with anything of this size, but it can be done and is worth the fight.

That way, millions of innocent names don’t go to Big Brother each month. That way, like wanted posters, it leaves decent people alone. Bad guys are identified. Innocent people are not. The federal government doesn’t get to register every innocent American gun owner.

The great obstacle in the radical left-wing infringement plan, which Americans rightfully resent and reject is eliminated. Progressives would stop stopping progress at last. The party of obstruction — the democrats — would be exposed for their true motives:

They don’t want BIDS because it doesn’t gather everyone’s names, which is their main (though publicly unstated) goal. If crime reduction was really their goal, they would be doing something about it even under NICS. They staunchly refuse. Everyone whose rights they deny (without trial or due process by the way) are just put on the street after denials, with their money, looking to buy a gun. How many get one? They don’t know. Or care, if evidence is the gauge.

The left wing’s real problem is that unilateral checks would show that “universal” checks are a scam. Progressives, leftists, liberals, democratic socialists — whatever these gun-fearful folks call themselves these days — don’t really want to stop crime with “universal” checks. They want your names.

The Emanuel Doctrine

Crime and the muslim jihad builds political capital and incentive to go after privately held guns under the Emanuel Doctrine — never let a crisis go to waste. As soon as a criminal or jihadi (they’re different) explodes, leftists stand ready, prepared to immediately dance in the blood of the victims (a phrase created by Neal Knox), and attack our rights. Lefties need those crimes, to fuel their fires.

We can see this clearly because they find and release every murderer, escapee, fugitive, felon, sex offender, rapist, arsonist, armed robber, illegal alien, muslim jihadi, spousal abuser and other prohibited person they spot through their cherished NICS system.

But they do gather a huge list of innocent people buying guns, more than one million every month, and they desperately want that. That’s been the goal of the billions they’ve spent on this thing all along. BIDS forces recognition of that.

Although they never admitted this publicly either, insiders understood that a primary motivation of government support for the Brady bill was not to implement background checks for gun purchases. It was to secure the quarter-billion dollars in funding the Justice Dept. hadn’t been able to obtain to build a computer capable of checking out every American from a single FBI location. Without the shouting about guns, the money would never have been allocated.

A computer that size and scope doesn’t fit on a desktop. It sits on a sprawling FBI campus in Clarksburg, W. Va., a sleepy little town two hours south of Pittsburgh. It’s a crown jewel in the government’s arsenal of population control tools. It needs a staff to run it.
If we switch over to unilateral checks, your gun-ownership information stays safer and more private, the way the Founding Fathers envisioned uninfringed gun ownership. Our Founders would freak out if they saw you waiting in a store for some federal agent back east to “allow” you to buy a firearm.

All the FBI has to do is maintain the prohibited-people list — still a big and important job — and keep the dealers informed. The FBI becomes our servants, not our masters. The list can be encoded, encrypted, password protected, updated, even hour-by-hour if they wish.

No, they’re not interested in a unilateral background check, because that would only stop every criminal in America. That doesn’t serve their purpose. They want their “universal” system, to collect the universe of gun owners in America — you.

Sure, they claim they delete the records, and statute is clear in requiring it, (18 USC §922(t), but they won’t allow a public audit (they claim a government audit keeps them honest). Trust, but don’t verify? In direct personal interviews they make assurances that they strictly comply with the law. Look at their campus — how would you audit that?

Besides, when designed in the 1990s, their system reportedly checked records of foreign agencies to be thorough, which made sense. According to reliable sources back then, that included Canadian authorities, Israeli Mossad, Scotland Yard, and more (they currently deny this). Those agencies are under no requirement to erase anything, so records of those inquiries would reside there. The public, even Congress, has little way to provide assurances it doesn’t.

We trust our national network of licensed firearms dealers (50,000 stores, 130,000 licensed dealers) to sell guns and ammunition day in and day out. Surely we can trust them with the names of hardened criminals who can’t buy guns, right? Any misuse of the information is a serious crime, you lose your business license and face prison. No checking out your daughter’s boyfriend.

Is the government afraid this will save money? (It will.) Is the problem it will be more efficient? (It is.) Do they fear losing all those jobs they created with their “universal” system collecting your name every time you shop? (They do.) Is it a privacy problem for the public-record list of hardened criminals (they will raise that red herring, mark my words).

It’s time to expose the boondoggle. It’s time to stop even the impression that the FBI is recording the names of every gun buyer, as they knowingly gather the data daily. It’s time for the money-saving, highly efficient, vast improvement of unilateral background checks, the BIDS system, and stop progressives from standing in the way of progress and keeping America free.

About GunLaws.com:
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Bloomfield Press, founded in 1988, is the largest publisher and distributor of gun-law books in the country. Our website, gunlaws.com, features a free national directory to gun laws and relevant contacts in all states and federally, along with our unique line of related books and DVDs. “After Your Shoot” for media review is available on request, call 800-707-4020. Our authors are available for interview, call to schedule. Call for cogent positions on gun issues, informed analysis on proposed laws, talk radio that lights up the switchboard, fact sheets and position papers. As we always say, “It doesn’t make sense to own a gun and not know the rules.” Visit:www.gunlaws.com

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Tionico

Here is another idea, which I think is better. At present as they press UniversalBackground Checks, EVERy transaction must go through an FFL. And EVERY check recults in a call to NICS. And every call opens the door for one more data set to be permanently retained. Eliminate the current NICS systemn, replacing it with a new system. At present, NICS maintain a database of prohibited persons. Fine. Any new info is added to it. It is mostly kept current, but not really. How about making that database accessible to anyone wiching to sell a firearm? No, not so I… Read more »

Whodaty

Or, how about this….
If you possess a valid carry permit, a dealer or citizen could check that data base, searchable by permit number, and you would be good to go with no further scrutiny needed for a purchase. Misuse of the system would be a felony.

MrApple

If you have a valid Concealed Carry Permit it already acts as your instant background check. But not all law abiding citizens go through the ordeal of asking permission to carry for their self defense (a Right becomes a Privilege just like that).

Tionico

True enough, but a large portion of gun purchases are by those already pernitted to carry. That would reduce the “load” on NICS by a signficant percentage. (I’nm sure some gummint agency has an idea of what percentage sales are to permit holders)
proof of anohter gun purchase within, say, the past year should also preclude NICS check on a new pruchase.

5WarVeteran

Oh there you go MAKING SENSE. With this current CRIMINAL Government it will never happen.

I am a realist and it sucks.

ole Shoemaker

Sending it to every dealer sounds like it would be a lot of trouble. Cause lots of confusion and excuses like “I must have the wrong version.” Why not just call with a computer and check it at their location? You check, you get the latest version and you get a verification number to prove you checked at a certain day and time, like credit card verification. As a lot of people have said, have it a criminal check of felons and the unqualified to buy a gun. And maybe have it at Automobile tag agencies and/or LEO stations too,… Read more »

MrApple

Sounds good now if the Background Check system was actually about stopping prohibited people from getting their hands on firearms and not REGISTRATION.

Tom C.

Good article, as usual. Now all we have to do is elect a president that is for saving money and protecting individual rights and private citizen’s information. The key to all that is voting.

Bob Pride

As a gun dealer, my profit is sucked up by the time it takes to do the background check. It takes about 20 minutes per sale in addition to other government mandated record keeping for sales tax, firearms inventory tracking, and payroll. Anything to streamline that process would be welcome. I also support the elimination of government data collection about purchases by law abiding citizens

Thom Paine

Bravo Sir ! Let’s fight to make it happen.

MarkPA

BIDS struck me as a good idea when I first read about it. For a moment, let’s ignore the prospects for getting a BIDS bill passed. Pressing this idea forward is an opportunity for gun-people to show that we don’t want prohibited-persons shopping in gun shops. We are willing to discuss alternatives even if they are not Constitutionally-purist. Now, suppose we fail to get a hearing; we point-out that the Gun-Controllers don’t want to loose control of the flow of names to Washington. What are they hiding? Is the FBI really building a frequent-buyer database in violation of the law?… Read more »