From those posts:
"WASHINGTON — The FBI has launched a new background-check system that notifies counterterrorism agents when suspects on its terrorist watch list attempt to purchase guns — but regulations prohibit them from getting details if the transaction actually occurs, according to federal officials familiar with the system.
If authorities block the purchase, however, the FBI is permitted to launch an investigation of the person who attempted to buy the weapon.
The result, according to the officials, is an awkward situation in which terrorism suspects who do not complete gun purchases may be located, while those toting lawfully purchased weapons may not be.
More than a dozen suspects on the FBI's terrorist watch list have attempted to buy guns since the system was implemented last spring, officials said. Authorities have declined to say how many succeeded.
The rules are the result of Attorney General John Ashcroft's interpretation of the Brady gun-control law, according to Justice Department officials, who said they are simply abiding by the federal firearms background-check system the law established."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001793271_guns17.html....if a terrorist actually succeeds in buying guns, this corrupt imbecile then declares him to be a "law abiding gun owner" and protects him from the scrutiny of law enforcement.
You might recall that the troops in Afghanistan found that Al Quaeda and the Taliban had been practicing on targets provided by the NRA...
"But that was just the beginning of the ironies. The same morning, The New York Times reported that Ashcroft's Justice Department had blocked efforts by the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies to check Justice's database to determine if any of the 1,200 individuals detained after the September 11 attacks had bought guns or had sought to do so. Why, asked Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, was Ashcroft handcuffing the FBI--his phrase--in its efforts to investigate gun purchases by suspected terrorists?
The answer, said Ashcroft, was simple. The law creating the federal database of gun buyers and would-be purchasers (which mandates that the records are kept for only 90 days) didn't permit such uses; Congress had forbidden it. What Ashcroft didn't say was that as a member of the Senate--one whose libertarian streak never went much beyond the agenda of the gun lobby--he had worked as hard as anyone to write even more restrictions into that law.
Did Ashcroft think that the law should be changed? the senators asked. Would he send up a bill calling for such changes? Why were there no background checks at gun shows? How many terrorists bought semiautomatics at gun shows in complete anonymity? Again and again, the attorney general ducked: If Congress sent him something he would review it, he told the lawmakers, but "I won't comment on legislation in the hypothetical." "
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/schrag-p.html