Text Box: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEDERAL AUDIT EXPOSES FLAW IN NEVADA’S CARRY CONCEALED WEAPON PERMIT PROGRAM Assemblywoman Angle Sites Public Safety Concerns & Fee Impacts Reno, NV – Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, in response to constituent calls, learned that sporting good stores around Nevada received letters stating that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives would no longer recognize the Nevada Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) permit as a valid document for point-of-sale purchases. She is trying to stop the new policy from going into effect October 23. The letter to sporting good stores was brief, and offered no explanation of why the BATF would no longer accept Nevada CCW permits as valid documents forgoing the Brady check. Current CCW holders were granted a 5-year waiver from Brady Point-of-Sale checks. If this new policy goes into effect, permit holders will pay a $25.00 fee each time they purchase a firearm, even if the purchases happen within a day of each other. Angle, known for her tough stand against tax & fee increases, stated "Gun ownership is a Constitutional right. Thousands of honest citizens have already paid fees to the Sheriff’s Office to conduct these background checks." The new policy will affect nearly 15,000 Nevada citizens. The new policy change was a decision voted on by the Nevada Sheriffs & Chief’s Association. Frank Adams, a spokesperson for the Association said that the state failed a recent audit conducted by the BATF. The audit revealed that local counties were not conducting annual checks on CCW holders, prompting the BATF’s decision to revoke the National Instant Check System (NICS) check exemption for Nevada CCW permit holders. Adams complained that local counties lacked resources for conducting annual checks, and said the vote was unanimous to let the exemption expire. Assemblywoman Angle (R) Reno said this is a concern for all Nevada citizens. "This is a public safety issue. What if someone with a 5-year permit is convicted for robbery out of state and serves 2 years in prison? Upon release, is that released felon still qualified to carry his weapon when he returns to Nevada? I thought this is why the BATF wanted recurrent checks." Mary Lerch, a spokesperson for the ATF in San Francisco, conceded that the lack of recurrent checks could be a public safety issue. Lerch said a follow-up letter from the BATF would go out to all Federal Firearms License dealers. But Richard Brengman, a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer, was more interested in seeing the letter that the BATF sent to Major Bob Wideman, the Criminal Justice Information System Officer at the Nevada Department of Public Safety who sent the original letters to FFL dealers. Brengman wanted to know why the program was being terminated, but Wideman wrote back to Brengman that the letter was "correspondence between the BATF and the Nevada DPS, and I do not intend to release the document." Brengman asked, "What are they hiding?" Mrs. Angle said she would look further into the matter. She said she will ask John Spurgeon, the BATF Chief overseeing the Firearms Program Division in Washington D.C., for a copy of the audit. ###   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO & FIREARMS RELEASE DOCUMENTS TO ANGLE But Answers Raise Further Questions About Nevada’s Public Safety Reno, NV – It was not until a letter dated October 13 that Nevada citizens started becoming aware of sweeping changes to the Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) permit program that would go into effect just 10 days later. When the letters, signed by Major Bob Wideman, the Criminal Justice Information System Officer at the Nevada Department of Public Safety began arriving at sporting goods stores, recipients confused by the vagueness of the letter looked to Assemblywoman Sharron Angle for help in the matter. "Businesses and CCW holders were perplexed," Mrs. Angle stated. "They didn’t understand why drastic changes were about to take place so suddenly." But as Angle began investigating, she discovered that Nevada was actually put on notice in July of 2002. That was when the BATF wrote an advisory that Nevada, in order to be in compliance with the Brady law, needed to act in accordance with certain procedures to ensure reliability to the program. Mainly, that in order to qualify as a National Instant Criminal System (NICS) check alternative, the NICS check done before a permit is issued had to include a check of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) databases for non-U.S. citizen applicants. This was to ensure the applicant was not an illegal alien or nonimmigrant alien. "Apparently, there were problems with the program that could have been addressed during the last two legislative sessions, but I don’t recall anybody notifying our Judiciary Committee," said Angle, a member of the Judiciary committee since 1999. "When Major Wideman testified before our committee back in February of this year, he gave a rather glowing review of his departmental accomplishments. Unfortunately, it appears that major concerns where not being brought to our attention when there was time to do something legislatively." Angle contacted Chief John Spurgeon of the BATF Firearms Programs Division in Washington DC to learn why the state program was failing. Spurgeon provided documents to Angle that showed he wrote to Wideman advising him that "the law of the State must provide that such a permit is to be issued only after an authorized government official has verified that the information available to such official, including NICS check results, does not indicate that possession of a firearm by the applicant would be in violation of Federal, State, or local law." Spurgeon emphasized in closing to Wideman that "it is critical to strictly enforce the permit exception to ensure prohibited persons do not acquire firearms." Spurgeon corresponded to Angle that during a lengthy process, a review of Nevada was undertaken to ensure that Nevada was meeting the qualifications listed in the 2002 advisory. Angle was troubled by what she learned from Spurgeon: mainly, that five of the counties stated it didn’t run ICE checks on non- U.S. citizens, and one county stated it did not conduct NICS checks on renewals. Furthermore, one county even stated it didn’t deny permits to applicants who would violate Federal, State or local law if in possession of a firearm. Lastly, three counties didn’t even bother to respond to the BATF review. But as the answers were forthcoming to Angle, the Reno Republican had even more questions. Angle wanted to know out of Nevada’s 17 counties, which counties had jeopardized the program. Angle also wants to know the state officials that have been involved with the BATF concerning the review. But Spurgeon told Angle that the Privacy Act requires ATF to first redact named individuals, and said he would send the redacted documents to Angle at the end of the week. "Not only do I want to know which counties, I want to know the Nevada State officials who where involved. All we really know at this time is that the Nevada Sheriff’s and Chiefs Association got together at the last minute and voted to do nothing, a decision that creates added fees and inconvenience for over 14,000 Nevadans, and perhaps the public safety of the state as a whole." Spurgeon told Angle that the BATF sent Nevada a letter with their initial decision in May 2005, and gave Nevada until September 30th to address their concerns, and even offered assistance in addressing their concerns. Furthermore, Spurgeon said they met with Nevada officials about their concerns at an FBI conference in May, and had numerous phone calls with Nevada officials explaining ways they could address their concerns. But ultimately, the "Nevada officials involved in the decision process met and decided not to address the concerns" raised by the ATF's letter in May of 2005. "Accordingly, in the interest of not allowing a prohibited person to obtain a firearm, ATF made the final decision that the NV permit is no longer authorized to be an alternative to the NICS check. If Nevada addresses our concerns in the future, we'd be happy to revisit this decision," said Spurgeon. Angle said that Spurgeon offered to help draft legislation, and added that she would take him up on the offer. "Gun ownership is a Constitutional right," said Angle, "and I will do everything possible at the State and Federal level to protect those rights." Meanwhile, the Nevada Legislative Council Bureau is now conducting a further investigation on Angle’s behalf into the matter. Angle would like to see an extension granted to rescind the new ruling, and also wants reassurance that everything is being done to assure the integrity of Nevada’s CCW program and the safety of the public. ###