That headline, "Ashcroft Protects Gunowners’ Privacy," did not appear recently in the major media. On the contrary, Attorney General John Ashcroft was widely criticized in the media for supposedly blocking FBI access to gun records in a terrorism investigation. That, in fact, was the headline appearing over a Washington Post story: "Ashcroft Blocks FBI Access to Gun Records."

In a Post story by Peter Slevin, it was reported that, "The FBI will not be permitted to compare the names of suspected terrorists against federal gun purchase records, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the Senate yesterday, offering no encouragement to senators willing to guarantee the FBI the authority to do so." But Slevin went on to say that Ashcroft said "the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to purchase a weapon at a gun store."

In other words, Ashcroft was strictly enforcing the law, which allows only an instant check on those buying guns. It does not permit the FBI to go back and review those records because that would constitute an unlawful data base on those buying guns in the United States, and that was prohibited. Ashcroft was acting in conformance with the law to protect the privacy of law-abiding gun owners.

Yet Slevin reported, "Some critics charged that Ashcroft’s strong opposition to gun control is interfering with his role as the government’s top cop. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing him of ‘handcuffing’ the FBI, pressed him unsuccessfully to say why he did not seek access to gun records when he claimed expanded investigatory powers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

So Democrats were demanding that Ashcroft go beyond the law and seize powers that he did not legally have. Whatever happened to those Democrats who were insisting when Ashcroft was confirmed to his post that he promise to enforce the law? The New York Times covered the story in the same misleading fashion. "Justice Dept. Bars Use of Gun Checks in Terror Inquiry" was the headline over a story by Fox Butterfield. It said, "The Justice Department has refused to let the F.B.I. check its records to determine whether any of the 1,200 people detained after the Sept. 11 attacks had bought guns, F.B.I. and Justice Department officials say."

The Boston Globe reported, "Members of Congress expressed outrage yesterday at the news that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has declined an FBI request to use federal gun records to check whether people detained in the antiterror campaign have recently bought weapons. Members of both the House and Senate said the attorney general’s interpretation of the law is too strict, flies in the face of his aggressive approach to the terrorist investigation, and appears to be aimed at pleasing the gun lobby, of which he was a strong backer when he was a Republican senator from Missouri." So Ashcroft’s interpretation of the law was "too strict?" And who were those Democrats? The same ones demanding that he enforce the law in the first place. The liberals were playing politics, using the media like a violin.

Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org