If someone admits to a federal official that he or she has used illegal drugs, that information should be sent to the FBI so that person can be disqualified from purchasing a gun, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said today.
Noting that Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter in the Tucson massacre, had admitted to military recruiters that he had used drugs on several occasions, Schumer, said he was proposing to the Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that the military be required to notify federal officials about such admissions. He said such a process does not require new legislation.
Loughner is charged with five federal counts in the killing of a federal judge and shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The Jan. 8 mass shooting outside a Safeway grocery store resulted in six dead and 14 injured.
A military official told Fox News last week that Loughner was rejected from enlisting in the Army in 2008 because he admitted he had used drugs. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because privacy laws prevent the military from disclosing such information about an individual’s application.
Schumer said if military recruiters or other officials report admissions of drug use to a national database, those individuals could be denied a gun.
“After Jared Loughner was interviewed by the military, he was rejected from the Army because of excessive drug use. Now, by law, by law that’s on the books, he should not have been allowed to buy a gun,” Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But the law doesn’t require the military to notify the FBI about that, and in this case they didn’t. So I — this morning — I’m writing the administration and urging … that the military notify the FBI when someone is rejected from the military for excessive drug use and that be added to the FBI database,” Schumer said.
The issue of limiting Second Amendment rights has exploded in the wake of the Arizona shooting as lawmakers and officials discuss whether increased curbs should be put on gun ownership.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Sunday that a citizen hunting or protecting his home does not need a gun with 33 bullets per clip.
“I think the nation’s spirits would be lifted if the Congress acted quickly with the president and reinstated the assault weapons ban which also had the ban on these large magazines, these clips that carried 30-plus bullets,” he said.
Rendell, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” added that had Loughner earlier been classified as having mental illness, he would never have gotten a gun under provisions established in existing gun control laws.
