Maryland State Police have failed to make expedient background checks as far back as 1995, resulting in recalls of weapons accidentally sold to convicted criminals -- including, recently, an attempted rapist.
A 1995 audit of the police agency's criminal background check system commissioned by Del. Cheryl C. Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat, revealed delays of up to 97 days on some checks for potential gun owners.
"The state police are frantically trying to recover from an embarrassing mismanagement issue," Kagan said. "State police say it is the computer system, but this seems to be a long-standing, ongoing problem."
The problem of felons and other ineligible gun buyers receiving weapons became so severe in the past few months that Kagan said last week she was pulled out of a budget hearing by State Police Superintendent David B. Mitchell. He wanted to assure her that the guns used in a widely publicized killing at the Ellicott City courthouse were not among the 54 guns wrongly sold to criminals in late 1998 and early this year because of delays in background checks.
State police say they fell behind on 1,500 criminal background checks over a five-month period. Yesterday, they scrambled to double-check their records. They called gun stores across the state in attempts to verify gun purchases, apologizing for the backlog and admitting that several violent felons had obtained weapons.
"It was our fault," Mitchell said. "It was something we believe was mainly contributed to by the switch-over to the new computer system."
In recent weeks, 27 convicted criminals have been charged with false application and perjury for allegedly buying guns illegally. Among them are a man convicted of attempted rape, a man charged with assault with intent to maim, a drug dealer and six drug users, according to state police.
Anyone convicted of a felony, certain misdemeanors, or domestic violence is forbidden by federal and state laws from owning a handgun. People with histories of alcohol or drug abuse or mental illness, and those under 21 also cannot own a gun.
The legislative audit from 1995 shows that the state police processed 32,697 applications for gun ownership that year. They did not approve 344.
Auditors randomly picked 25 of those rejected applications. In 14 of those cases, state police had been up to three months late in providing results to gun shops of criminal background checks. "There was at least one whose application was rejected 97 days late," said Kagan.
The audit said three guns had to be retrieved from convicted criminals who had purchased them.
Under state law, the state police have seven days to tell gun store owners if the application is rejected. Once the seven-day waiting period expires, the purchaser can pick up his gun.
But, the backlog in the state police checking system has prompted gun owners to police their customers.
"I'd like to rest peacefully at night," said Lou Nichols, owner of Shooters Discount in Arbutus, who has also had to sell handguns without record checks. "It is not uncommon for me to kick someone out of the shop because they didn't seem right to buy a gun."
Pub Date: 3/20/99