U.S.A. — A condition of the Hunter Biden plea deal documented in the Hearing Transcript (p. 85) raises questions about the existence of and authority for permanent disqualifying entries in the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), a practice Gun Owners of America has demonstrated is unauthorized and unlawful. Attorney Stephen Stamboulieh filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of this correspondent on Thursday to seek answers.
Addressed to the Office of the Attorney General, the request notes a commitment by Biden to “consent to a permanent entry in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System such that he will be denied via NICS if he attempts to legally purchase another firearm.”
The FOIA request seeks:
- All records regarding the phrase “consent to a permanent entry in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System”
- Records regarding the authority of the Department of Justice to allow and/or require individuals to consent to “permanent entry” in the NICS system to deny firearms purchases; and
- Records regarding the ability/authority of those persons who have consented to “permanent entry” in NICS to remove themselves from NICS.
The existence of a NICS Indices Self-Submission form was reported by investigative journalist John Crump for AmmoLand Shooting Sports News in December 2019.
“Once the person submits the form, they cannot get their rights back,” Crump observed.
“[A] person does not lose his Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms simply because he signed a government form purporting to relinquish them,” Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, informed Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a September 2022 letter. Pratt was following up on GOA’s lawsuit to obtain records initially sought in its own FOIA request. The crux of his argument:
“The FBI has no statutory authority to create or to use such a form. The list of prohibited persons established by Congress, set out in 18 U.S.C. §§ 922 (d), (g) and (n), does not contain a prohibitor for a person who merely self-reports as mentally incapacitated. Rather, Sections 922(d)(4) and (g)(4) prohibit firearm possession only by someone who “has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution.” A person who signs an FBI form voluntarily has neither been “adjudicated” anything nor “committed” anywhere. Indeed, if such persons had met the Congressional test for “prohibited persons” under any other federal prohibitor, there would have been no need to coerce them into signing the form. Yet the FBI has been using the signing of its form as the sole basis to deprive Americans of their constitutional rights.”
“Thus, pursuant to you your duties under the statute, we respectfully request that the FBI: (i) identify and “remove” records from its ‘database’ relating to those who have signed the FBI form; (ii) that the FBI (under the authority of the Attorney General) ‘remove’ the offending records from the NICS system;4 and (iii) that the FBI halt its use of the illegal and unconstitutional NICS Indices Self-Submission Form. use of the illegal and unconstitutional NICS Indices Self-Submission Form,” Pratt concluded.
The Biden concession raises questions about the FBI continuing to engage in unlawful practices after both Director Wray and AG Garland have been legally “made aware” of it and required by the NICS statute to “ensure that the record in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is updated, corrected, modified, or removed within 30 days of receipt.”
Click the link to read the whole article: FOIA Request Seeks Information
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