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Published Thursday, November 20, 2003
Ban on Gun Databases Clears Panel
Bill prohibits police from tracking those who sell weapons at pawn shops.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE -- As House Speaker Johnnie Byrd seeks support in a crowded U.S. Senate race, the House is trying to please an important Republican constituency: gun owners.
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill Wednesday that, with some exceptions, prohibits police from keeping a computer database of people who sell guns at pawn shops.
Police in Pinellas and Hillsborough criticized the idea. But what police call a valuable crime-fighting tool, the gun lobby calls harassment of citizens.
"We don't want government to know who has the guns," testified Marion Hammer, the Florida lobbyist for the National Rifle Association who is pushing the idea. "If the government knows who has guns and where to find them, they can ban them and then confiscate them."
The House took up the NRA's cause with a bill that likens gun registration to Nazi rule and Marxism. The proposal says Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro used gun laws to seize weapons, "and render the disarmed population helpless."
Lawmakers acted despite warnings from prosecutors and police that they would be making it harder to catch violent criminals.
Without pawn shop records, police might never have caught the killer of Bryant Peney, a Fort Lauderdale police officer shot to death in 1996, said Edward Sileo, a Broward sheriff's deputy. A pawn shop slip linked a .357-caliber Magnum revolver to the murderer.
"The record of the firearms transactions that his killer made at a pawn shop would have already been destroyed and the police would never have been able to clear the case," Sileo testified.
Without the power to track firearms sales, a Miami police corruption case could not have been prosecuted, Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle told lawmakers.
Two years ago, after complaints by the NRA, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement agreed to destroy records of gun transactions after 48 hours. But many local departments maintain the data.
"We're not concerned with maintaining a registry on firearms. We don't care about that," said Det. Rafael Albert of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. "We use this as a tool to recover property stolen from citizens." The agency gets detailed lists about pawned property, Albert said, including the seller's driver license number and thumbprint.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson sees the bill as an effort to prevent police agencies from building a statewide database to track stolen guns and other items by using serial numbers.
"We want to be able to connect quickly with other counties," Henderson said. "If people know we can't record and store this information, they'll steal guns and bring them to another county, like Pasco, and we'll be none the wiser."
Henderson said he's working with Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary to create a database linking the counties along the Interstate 4 corridor.
"I think they think this Central Florida system will turn into a statewide system, and that it's like gun registration," Henderson said. "But it's not. We don't need to know the owner's name. The point is to track guns that are missing."
Byrd, a Plant City Republican, has made the bill (HB 155) a priority. It was assigned to only one committee, which held its only hearing Wednesday. The next step is a vote by the full House next March.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, an NRA member and speaker pro tem.
The bill allows pawn shops and secondhand dealers to keep paper records for a year. But a police agency caught with a computer file could be guilty of a third-degree felony and fined up to $5-million, an amount Democratic Rep. Jack Seiler of Fort Lauderdale called "absurd" and "political rhetoric."
"I think it's a clear message they're sending that these are our issues," said Seiler, who voted against the bill. "I've heard people say that this is just the Senate race being played out in the House. I don't like to have our process played out that way."
The committee vote was 12-3, with two Democrats, Loranne Ausley and Curtis Richardson, both of Tallahassee, joining 10 Republicans in voting yes. Voting no were Seiler, Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, and Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-Miami.
Copyright 2003 The Ledger
