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GOA - A Massachusetts Police Officer Talks About How an Unpaid Traffic Ticket Could Result in a Gun Ban ... Massachusetts has sent the names of 430,000 people subject to bench warrants to NICS as "fugitives from justice" -- frequently as a result of unpaid traffic tickets

A Massachusetts Police Officer Talks About How an Unpaid Traffic Ticket Could Result in a Gun Ban | Fact Sheets

[asked a] Massachusetts police force to explain it. Here is what he told us:

Having arrested people on warrants, let me explain how it works, for parking tickets or anything else for that matter.

A parking ticket or speeding ticket or whatever is issued by a police officer. The recipient forgets about it -- due to vacation, work, family etc. -- and after a few months the issuing police department and or court realizes it is unpaid AND the defendant did not respond, i.e. they didn't plead not guilty or ask for a trial.

At this point the court issues a warrant, usually for failure to appear. When a police officer stops or encounters that person for any reason, and enters their information, name and date of birth into NCIC [National Crime Information Center], the warrant shows up. In some cases the officer does NOT know what the warrant is for and only knows which court issued it.

Regardless, the subject of the warrant is considered a fugitive from justice. (Emphasis added.)

The Department of Justice reported in 2012 that 19.1% of denials (13,862) were as a result of being a "fugitive from justice."
 
Hate to say it, but if one can afford a firearm and bear the responsibility of doing so, that person should also be responsible enough to pay the ticket on time. Oh but I don't have the cash? Then sell the gun or the TV, pay the ticket and learn your lesson.
 
Hate to say it, but if one can afford a firearm and bear the responsibility of doing so, that person should also be responsible enough to pay the ticket on time. Oh but I don't have the cash? Then sell the gun or the TV, pay the ticket and learn your lesson.

I heard once from a guy on fugitive detail, that only 2 groups of people know if they have a warrant.
1. Those incarcerated currently
2. Those with a probation officer

It is possible to be wanted, and you not even know.


How about we hit up the Fix NICS such that if the warrant is for violence (not just a felony) that will result in contact with an Emergency Dispatch (911) and a felony arrest team being dispatched to the point of purchase (say Pawn shop) ?
If you have a felony warrant, the shop keeper might be required to tell you to report to the local sheriff.

How is not paying an administrative fine grounds for preventing a private party transaction?

I kind of get it would be grounds to block you from government resources. Can't use the library. Can't use the DMV. Can't get a camping space. Can't get a marriage license, or file an outstanding one. No building permits. But they don't check the system, do they?
 
Infractions. Misdemeanors. Felonies. If you have overdue public library books what would that be? I am surprised being on the NICS data base does not prohibit you from making speeches, going to church or protecting your home or papers ... etc.

Why does the NICS only affect the Second Amendment? Again, think about it. :(
 
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I worked the Warrants Detail many moons ago and I never found a single one who, with a Little encouragement "Remember that ticket/court case etc." didn't Know that they either had or should have had a warrant out for them. Lots of people can't seem to be bothered remembering those little details in their lives. As I remember it it's something called taking care of business. And, I know that the Courts will bend over backwards to try to help people to see that their fines get paid. Those are the same people who won't forget to stop by the pub for a few beers!!!
 
speaking of NICS garbage. why are there 7 million names of illegal aliens on that list? Dont you have to be a citizen to buy a firearm in the first place? why keep a list of some people who are not citizens on the NICS list? shouldnt they be failing to even get to the background check section if they are undocumented illegal alien?

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-records-in-the-nics-indices-by-state.pdf
 
Well..... I was arrested on a warrant I had no idea about nor could I have had any idea about. This is probably 25 years ago. I had a checkbook stolen and they wrote 20 or so bad checks. Most all of them I got squared around but there was one written in another county that I was charged with passing a bad check, a felony. (my name was on it, bad police work not to check with my bank but this was back before internet records) Now I had no idea that this check or charge even existed and of course, I did not write the check. I was in the county courthouse one day and was approached by a couple of fellows who kindly ask me my full name... and then put me in cuffs and escorted me to a cell. I had to pay the bail and got it sorted out the next day...

But to say everyone with a warrant knows it, or even could know, is a load of snot.
 
California has always (last 20 years at least) been that way, a ticket, child support, a myriad of issues will keep you from buying a firearm.
 
I know you might find this hard to believe but some people have been known to lie when filling out some Federal Forms!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

How do they get past the "give your ID to the gun dealer part?"

I'm getting a new state driver's license and I have to give a existing government ID, SSN card, birth certificate, two original utility bills. Can you get a government issued ID card that allows you to purchase a firearm and still be an illegal alien?
 
In WA you have been able to get a State ID Card even if you are illegal. And some Dealers don't have the best eyesight. I don't think a lot of illegals have much interest in Firearms but there are exception. But that's what Bars are for.
 
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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 E. 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. On Feb. 15, the FBI directed its employees in the Criminal Justice Information Services Division to remove all entries of fugitives from justice from the background check database and said that "entries will not be permitted" under that category until further notice. Before the FBI memo, there were about 500,000 people identified as fugitives from justice in the database — and all of those names were removed. Now there are 788.

"Even if the FBI's revised definition of fugitive from justice is assumed to be legally correct, purging the NICS database of every single individual previously identified as a fugitive from justice was an unjustifiable, alarmingly overbroad, and dangerous decision," the Giffords group's Thomas and Robin F. Thurston of the Democracy Forward Foundation wrote in the letter to the FBI.

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.
 
speaking of NICS garbage. why are there 7 million names of illegal aliens on that list? Dont you have to be a citizen to buy a firearm in the first place? why keep a list of some people who are not citizens on the NICS list? shouldnt they be failing to even get to the background check section if they are undocumented illegal alien?

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-records-in-the-nics-indices-by-state.pdf

No, you do not have to be a citizen to purchase or possess a gun, you just can't be an illegal alien. This country isn't split into citizen/illegal, there are also plenty of legal immigrants living here, all of whom can purchase and possess a firearm.
 

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