Brady/MMM Lawsuit Charges ATF With Allowing Illegal Assault Weapons
3/18/2004
Press Release
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
united with the Million Mom March
1225 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
www.bradycampaign.org
Contact:
Eric Howard
Phone: 202-898-0792
Washington, DC - The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March today filed a federal lawsuit charging Attorney General Ashcroft and the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with violating the law by allowing gun manufacturers to make thousands of new illegal assault weapons.
The lawsuit, filed today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, is based in part on documents obtained from ATF through the Freedom of Information Act -- before Congress moved this year to shield the agency from FOIA requests. The suit charges Ashcroft and ATF with allowing gun makers to violate the 1994 statute banning the manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons ("Assault Weapon Act").
The documents obtained through FOIA included private correspondence between ATF and Bushmaster Firearms of Windham, Maine in which ATF repeatedly gave Bushmaster permission to manufacture new "receivers" to replace damaged receivers for semiautomatic assault weapons that were possessed before the Assault Weapon Act went into effect in 1994 and thus were protected by the Act's "grandfather" clause.
The "receiver" of a gun is the housing for the firing mechanism of the gun and has a special legal status. Under the Act, the "receiver" of an assault weapon is considered the gun itself. Therefore, by allowing gun makers to manufacture new receivers, ATF has been allowing the manufacture of new assault weapons, in contravention of the statute.
The documents obtained through FOIA show that ATF has authorized Bushmaster to manufacture at least 96 new illegal assault weapons since 1997 -- but Bushmaster is only one of many gun manufacturers who made assault weapons before the Act was passed. It is likely, therefore, that ATF has allowed thousands of illegal assault weapons to be manufactured.
"Ten years ago, Congress found that assault weapons are weapons of war that put communities at grave risk," said Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March. "Every major law enforcement group in the nation agrees. By giving its stamp of approval to thousands of new assault weapons, the Justice Department is defying the law and jeopardizing public safety."
When Congress "grandfathered" assault weapons legally possessed when the assault weapon ban was passed, it expected that over time the number of grandfathered assault weapons in circulation would gradually decline, as the guns became nonfunctional due to wear and tear. According to the lawsuit, the Justice Department's enforcement policy ensures, instead, that thousands of grandfathered assault weapons will remain functional into the foreseeable future. At the time the statute was enacted in 1994, ATF estimated there were approximately two million assault weapons in circulation.
"There is no question that if the Justice Department were obeying the law, there would be fewer assault weapons available for criminal use," said Dennis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Campaign. "The Bush Administration repeatedly insists it is aggressively enforcing existing gun laws. It has expressed support for renewing the current assault weapons ban. Why, then, does it pursue an enforcement policy that undermines that life saving statute?"
In its suit, the Brady Campaign seeks a court order prohibiting the government from continuing to allow the manufacture of new receivers for semiautomatic assault weapons.
"The law says these weapons shouldn't be in our communities and on our streets," said Shikha Hamilton, a national spokeswoman for the Million Mom March, a chapter-based grassroots advocacy organization. "These facts show that instead of making our communities safer, federal law enforcement policies are keeping these weapons on our streets. That's outrageous."
Date of Release: March 18, 2004
Brady/MMM Lawsuit Charges ATF With Allowing Illegal Assault Weapons
