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Fugitive From Justice? ATF, FBI Disagree


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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-gun-background-check-database-20171122-story.html

 

 

Tens of thousands with outstanding warrants purged from background check database for gun purchases

By Sari Horwitz

Washington Post

 

Tens of thousands of people wanted by law enforcement officials have been removed this year from the FBI criminal background check database that prohibits fugitives from justice from buying guns.

 

The names were taken out after the FBI in February changed its legal interpretation of "fugitive from justice" to say it pertains only to wanted people who have crossed state lines..

 

What that means is that those fugitives who were previously prohibited under federal law from purchasing firearms can now buy them, unless barred for other reasons.

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The interpretation of who is a "fugitive from justice," a category that disqualifies people from buying a gun, has long been a matter of debate in law enforcement circles - a dispute that ultimately led to the February purging of the database.

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For more than 15 years, the FBI and ATF disagreed about who exactly was a fugitive from justice.

 

The FBI, which runs the criminal background check database, had a broad definition and said that anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant was prohibited from buying a gun. But ATF argued that, under the law, a person is considered a fugitive from justice only if they have an outstanding warrant and have also traveled to another state.

 

In a 2016 report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz urged the Justice Department to address the disagreement "as soon as possible." Late last year, before President Trump took office, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel sided with ATF and narrowed the definition of fugitives, according to law enforcement officials. The office said that gun purchases could be denied only to fugitives who cross state lines.

 

After Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Department further narrowed the definition to those who have fled across state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in a criminal proceeding.

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Federal law enforcement officials say that about 430,000 names of wanted people removed from the database were from Massachusetts.

 

Commissioner James Slater of the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services said that the reason that his state had so many fugitives in the FBI database is that state policy required sending the bureau the names of all people with an outstanding warrant, whether it was for misdemeanors or felonies.

 

Because Massachusetts state law prevents fugitives from buying guns, those individuals have now been added back to the federal database under the "state prohibitor" category and will be prevented from purchasing a firearm, he said.

 

Of the 70,000 others whose names have been purged, the FBI is working with the states to identify which people might have crossed state lines and could be put back into the federal database for that or other reasons.

 

"The Justice Department is committed to working with law enforcement partners across the country to help ensure that all those who can legally be determined to be prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm be included in federal criminal databases," said a Justice Department official who would discuss the matter only on the condition of anonymity.

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Makes sense.

 

Someone gets a traffic ticket and does a no-show for whatever reason, or even forgetting, and then a warrant is issued for their arrest.

 

Many people who have identity theft problems find out they have warrants for their arrests in other states, because the crooks used their identity to commit crimes or get tickets.

 

If someone is wanted by a local or state authority, and they are still living in state, they're not doing a good job of being a "fugitive"

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Outstanding (misdemeanor or felony) warrant = under indictment for a crime = PP

 

Above assumes they have not crossed state lines and are not actively evading arrest.

 

Anything less that a misdemeanor, such as a traffic case as noted by the "TR" in the case number, an outstanding bench warrant for FTA (failure to appear) or failure to pay, absence a criminal contempt finding by the court, will not make one a prohibited person.

 

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

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