Schumer: Close Gun Sale Loopholes
Politico reports:
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday he was going to ask the Pentagon to inform law enforcement agencies when candidates for military service are rejected for "excessive drug use."
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Schumer referred to reports that Jared Loughner, who's been charged with murder in the massacre in Arizona that left six people dead, including a federal judge, was rejected for military service because of drug use.
Loughner, though, was allowed to recently purchase a gun in Arizona.
"After Jared Loughner was interviewed the military, he was rejected by the Army because of excessive drug use," Schumer said. "Now, by law that's on the books, he should not have been allowed to buy a gun. But the law doesn't require the military to notify the FBI, and in this case they didn't."
Schumer said he would write to the Obama administration and urge the Pentagon "to notify the FBI when someone is rejected by the military for excessive drug use and that be added to the FBI database."
Schumer noted that several Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), want to reimpose restrictions on the size of ammunition clips, and he added that gun-related deaths declined in the 1990s after enactment of the assault-weapons ban. He did not call for reinstatement of that ban.
