[Director Magaw's letter states that because the NFRTR accurately reflects the identity of the person who is entitled to legally posseses an NFA firearm, the NFRTR records are reliable and valid for law enforcement purposes. Director Magaw further contends that Larson's statement that the NFRTR is in part inaccurate, because it does not reflect the identify of persons who may have innocently inherited, or the identified of persons to whom NFA firearms were given or sold not fully understanding the NFA's provisions, has not validity and that an amnesty period should not be established to correct these errors. ATF has transferred the ownership of some registered NFA firearms to lawful heirs, whose owners have been deceased for 20 or more years, and Director Magaw's letter does not make any statements about how NFA firearms in the estates of deceased people can be handled in ways that protect the rights of the heirs. No mention is made of "hard feelings" on the part of lawful heirs who have been told that a firearm is unregistered and must be abandoned to ATF, and ATF having to backtrack when said heir produced valid paperwork and ATF is forced to transfer the firearm to the heir. No mention is made of what procedures would be instituted to remove the onus of a criminal prosecution against persons who, years later, learned that an NFA firearm they innocently inherited has to be registered to them. Director Magaw does not address legitimate issues of public safety, nor the intention of the Congress that NFA firearms be strictly controlled. Indeed, the Treasury IG report states: "W believe that unless ATF acts to address this issue the number of deceased registrants will become greater as time passes and could adversely impact Congress' intention to control these weapons. ATF could be subject to further criticism from the public which woudl reflect negatively on ATF's efforts to administer the registry." (see "Audit Report on Allegations Concerning the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' Administration of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record," Office of Inspector General, Department of the Treasury, Report No. OIG-99-018, December 18, 1998, page 21). Director Magaw's statement on page 3 of his letter, that "the NFRTR continues to be an accurate and reliable database of firearms transactions," remains to be proven. Specifically, the OIG found errors in all of the forms it sampled using non-representative samples (4.3 percent of 141 Forms 4467; 8.4 percent of 179 "letter" registrations" and 7.9 percent of 202 "Other" registrations, as noted on page 22 of the December 18, 1998, IG report), but did not follow Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards as required and draw a representative sample and calculate the true error rate in the NFRTR. Consequently, the true error rate for these forms, and all other forms in the NFRTR, is currently unknown; therefore, it is legally incorrect for Director Magaw to characterize the NFRTR as "an accurate and reliable database of firearms transactions." ATF has most recently claimed (in a letter to Larson dated October 19, 1999) that it does not have any written procedures for detecting, verifying and correcting errors in the NFRTR--a position that seems unworthy of belief. Finally, while Director Magaw states that "most of your [Larson's] allegations are without merit," Magaw is silent on the allegations Larson made that the Treasury Department Inspector General determined were valid, which include: (1) persons working at or for ATF destroyed firearm registration documents, and the type and number of documents destroyed could not be determined; (2) ATF illegally registered nearly 2,500 NFA firearms on Form 4467 after the amnesty period expired; and (3) the NFRTR is not accurate or complete, because ATF employees did not always follow procedures in processing documents.] ----------------------- page 1 DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS WASHINGTON, D.C. 20226 DIRECTOR NOV 19 1999 Mr. Eric M. Larson P.O. Box 5497 Takoma Park, Maryland 20913 Dear Mr. Larson: This is in response to your letter of August 22, 1999, regarding your allegation that members of my staff have misled the President and me regarding your contentions about the accuracy of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) and your proposal for another amnesty period. Your allegations concerning my staff are totally without foundatino. I have been advised of all your allegations concerning the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' (ATF) administration of the National Firearms Act (NFA), beginning with your attempts in 1987 to have certain firearms removed from the statute up through the recent issuance of the Office of the Insxpector General (OIG) reports. I have reviewed the OIG reports and agree with my staff that most of your allegations are without merit. We do not support your proposal for another amnesty period. As you know the only amnesty period authorized to date occurred November 2 through December 1, 1968. The reason for granting amnesty at that time was to overcome the adverse effect of a Supremem Court decision which held that, prior to the 1968 amendments, provisions of the NFA were invalid under the self-incrimination clause of the Fifth Amendment. As you know, the Secretary of the Treasury has authority to establish amnesty periods if such periods would contribute to the purposes of the NFA. page 2 Since 1968, the Department of the Treasury and ATF consistently ahve taken the position that because the 1968 amnesty served its intended purpuose of remedying the NFA's constitutional defect, granting an additional amnesty period would be of no value. Moreover, further amnesty periods would disrupt our efforts to enforce the NFA. Additional amnesty periods would also risk creating ill-will and possible legal challenges on the part of people who have been prosecuted for possession of unregistered NFA weapons, had their weapons seized, or voluntarily abandoned their weapons to ATF in the past. An additional amnesty might also encourage people to acquire unregistered firearms in the expectation of other such periods. Your letter expressed your belief that the registration of NFA firearms to persons who may be deceased is a problem that seriously impacts the accuracy of the NFRTR. We disagree with you on this matter. The NFRTR is reliable and effective for law enforcement purposes, as it accurately reflects the identity of the person legally entitled to possess a particular firearm. The fact that the registrant is deceased does not affect the validity of the registration. We work with executors of estates constantly to accommodate heirs ofo deceased firearms owners by establishing entitlement to the firearms and transferring registrations. In addition, in ATF's response to the OIG investigation, we recommended several ways in which we plan to more widely disseminate information regarding transfers of firearms in estates. I assure you that ATF believes that enforcement and administration of teh NFA is a critical component of our strategic goal of keeping firearms out of the hands of those not legally entitled to possess them. page 3 We have carefully considered the recommendations made by the OIG and are working to ensure that the NFRTR continues to be an accurate and reliable database of firearms transactions. Sincerely yours, (signed---John W. Magaw) John W. Magaw Director