Background Checks

Baltimore County police Chief James W. Johnson, along with other law enforcement leaders, will appear at a news conference Wednesday to ask Congress to approve stricter gun laws. Johnson, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, also spoke last month at a Senate hearing, along with officials from the National Rifle Association to discuss proposals to strengthen gun control laws. Johnson, as part of the national police coalition of police organizations, are asking for a ban on new semi-automatic assault weapons, requesting background checks for all firearm buyers, limiting high-capacity magazines to 10 rounds and improving the national criminal background checks.

DON'T BE MISLED by the news headlines -- the Brady gun-control law lives. The law's provision calling for local criminal background checks of handgun purchasers was overturned by the Supreme Court, but the rest of the gun-control statute remains intact. Even the section tossed out by the high court is a temporary problem that will only affect 20 states for 17 months.If the National Rifle Association was looking for a sweeping victory for unfettered firearms possession, the narrow and hotly argued 5-4 Supreme Court ruling didn't provide it. The court decision had more to do with enhancing states' rights at the expense of Congress than with gun control.

WASHINGTON -- Facing a rebellion in their ranks, Senate Republicans reversed field yesterday and endorsed a drive to require background checks for all firearms purchases at gun shows.Their sudden change of heart came one day after Republicans helped reject a similar measure.Yesterday, several Republicans told their leaders that that vote created a potential political disaster.They warned of the perils of opposing a popular gun control measure so soon after the Colorado school massacre, which focused attention on the availability of guns.

Shame on the senators who defied public opinion and voted to defeat the Manchin-Toomey bill to expand background checks for gun purchases ("Senate rejects expanded checks on gun purchases," April 18). There is blood on the hands of those who voted to kill this bill. Patriotic Americans will move heaven and Earth to make certain they are defeated at the polls when they stand for re-election. Sen. Harry Reid doesn't get away scot free in this incident. He had an opportunity early in the session to modify or eliminate the filibuster rule that has caused so much harm to the nation, and he declined to do it. Without that rule , the measure would have passed.

Baltimore police are investigating whether illegally purchased handguns were used in city crimes after state police announced more than 50 guns had found their way into the hands of those ineligible to purchase them.State police fell behind on 1,500 criminal background checks over a five-month period, allowing gun merchants to sell 54 handguns to people who later failed the checks. State police say they have recovered all but five of the weapons.Several gun sellers said yesterday that they had not received results on requested background checks from weeks and months ago.State police, however, said they had resolved the problems and are conducting 300 checks a day."

A day after being criticized on the floor of the House of Representatives, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said yesterday that she was not responsible for a decision this year that resulted in a temporary halt to background checks on some gun buyers. Townsend, the Democratic candidate for governor, accused House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who made the remarks, of "playing politics" with the issue. On Tuesday, Sensenbrenner asked congressional investigators to look into why the Maryland State Archives stopped cooperating with the FBI for four months this year on the background checks.

Beginning today, applicants seeking a job with the county schools will have to pay for their own background checks, as recent budget cutsand the threat of additional losses have prompted the system to cease paying for the fingerprint checks on prospective hires."

Perhaps some facts would help the sycophantic Mr. Britt understand how truly vacuous and meaningless our president's recent theatrical performance on gun control, complete with a wallpaper of children behind him, was ("State lawmakers should follow President Obama's lead on gun safety," Letters, Jan. 24). I'm sure Mr. Britt was equally impressed by our governor's performance in which he claimed that the Newtown tragedy demonstrated the need for Obamacare is needed! The political grandstanding of our politicians is shameful!

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore will unveil a revised sexual abuse policy today at a mandatory meeting for parish and school leaders that will require criminal background checks for every church employee, as well as for many volunteers. The new policy follows by two months U.S. bishops' approval of a get-tough approach to the sexual abuse of minors at their June meeting in Dallas. It also follows the removal last month of a Federal Hill pastor who had knowingly hired a church organist convicted of child sexual abuse.

I support the National Rifle Association's position of stationing armed guards at every school ("NRA to America: Blame yourself, not us," Dec. 21). However, I do not want my taxes increased to pay for armed school guards. I want the gun owners themselves to pay for it. Tax all guns with a sales tax of 150 percent and charge a permit fee of $300 per year per gun to pay for more armed school police. Also ban assault weapons, require background checks and mental evaluations to be paid for by potential gun owners, ban ammunition clips of more than 10 rounds and require all guns to be kept locked up. People with guns kill a lot of people.