Gun Control Bill: Secret FBI Checks on Job Applicants

Wow. This kills the bill for sure.
Check it out:
The gun control legislation proposed by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) lets firearms dealers secretly run government background checks on job applicants—a gross violation of privacy. Private-sector employers should not be able to use non-public government databases like the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to check up on job applicants, unless the job applicants first consent to the intrusion into their privacy. And the job applicants have every reason to consent—they want the job.
The Schumer-Toomey-Manchin (STM) bill provides that, 90 days after enactment of the STM bill, “the Attorney General shall promulgate regulations allowing licensees to use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) established under this section for purposes of conducting voluntary preemployment background checks on prospective employees.”
It is all well and good that the word “voluntary” leaves licensed firearm importers, manufacturers, or dealers free to use the NICS or not to screen job applicants, but the provision does not protect the privacy of a job applicant. The provision should require—not simply leave to the discretion of Attorney General Eric Holder to decide in his regulations whether to require—the employer to get the job applicant’s consent to the NICS background check.
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