AG nominee supports assault weapons ban
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales
told the Senate today that he supports extending the expired
federal assault weapons ban.
Gonzales also said he wants Congress to get rid of a
requirement that would eliminate part of the Patriot Act this
year, despite complaints that it is too intrusive.
"I believe the USA PATRIOT Act has greatly improved our
nation's ability to detect and prevent terrorist attacks,"
Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee in written
answers to questions left over from his confirmation hearing.
Gonzales, who served as President Bush's lawyer during his
first term, is expected to be confirmed when the Senate
returns after Bush's inauguration Thursday. He would be the
nation's first Hispanic attorney general and replace John
Ashcroft.
Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., pressed
Gonzales for written answers to several of their questions
during his daylong confirmation hearing. Those answers were
delivered today to the committee, which planned a Wednesday
meeting to consider nominations.
Congress let the 10-year-old assault weapons ban expire in
September. The measure outlawed 19 types of military-style
assault weapons, banned certain features on firearms such as
bayonet mounts, and limited ammunition magazines to 10 rounds.
Gonzales pointed out that his brother Tony is a SWAT
officer in Houston.
"I worry about his safety and the types of weapons he will
confront on the street," Gonzales said. "The president has
made it clear that he stands ready to sign a reauthorization
of the federal assault weapons ban if it is sent to him by
Congress. I, of course, support the president on this issue."
Antigun groups criticized Bush during the presidential
campaign for failing to press for an extension of the ban.
Gonzales also said he supports the reauthorization of the
Patriot Act, the post-Sept. 11 law that expanded the
government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against
suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.
More than a dozen provisions of the law are set to expire
by late October 2005 unless renewed by Congress. These include
authority for judges to issue search warrants that apply
nationwide, authority for FBI and criminal investigators to
share information about terrorism cases, and the FBI's power
to obtain records in terrorism-related cases from businesses
and other entities, including libraries.
"I believe the sunsets that apply to several provisions of
the USA PATRIOT Act should be repealed," Gonzales said.
Opponents have called the law intrusive and contend that
letting the FBI get library records undermines civil liberties
and threatens to let the government snoop into the reading
habits of innocent Americans.
Gonzales says people have misunderstood what parts of the
Patriot Act does. "I am unaware of abuses under the USA
PATRIOT Act," he said. "For this reason, I welcome an honest
and real debate."
Gonzales said he is willing to consider tempering that part
of the law.
The statute says business and library records must be
"sought for" a terrorism investigation. Opponents have claimed
that means the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court —
the secret court that approves surveillance and wiretaps for
espionage and terrorism cases — had no choice about whether to
grant the subpoena.
"I would be happy for the statute to be amended to state
the investigators may ask the FISA court for an order
requesting the production of documents 'relevant to' an
ongoing foreign intelligence investigation," Gonzales said.
Source:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2997962
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