Colorado Democrat believes concealed carry database should be allowed to expire...

[spin]

Should database be shot down?
Audit, both parties cast doubt on state’s concealed-carry database
Debi Brazzale, Colorado News Agency
Thursday, December 23, 2010

Are we safer? That question was on the minds of some state lawmakers last week as they weighed the value of a statewide database on concealed-carry permit holders.

The database, put in place in 2003 by legislation, is defended by those who are comforted by restraints on gun ownership and reviled by staunch supporters of a constitutional right to arms. After members of the Legislative Audit Committee last Tuesday were given a snapshot of the overall effectiveness of the program, the questions arose.

The database is riddled with errors, says an audit performed by the state’s auditor: 63 percent of the records in the database contained mistakes. The audit also found that the validity of any given permit could not be verified.

***snip***

“It’s another one of those government programs that’s doing no good at all,” said Schultheis. “Most sheriffs don’t want the database, and not one of them can cite an instance where the database has protected the public in any way, shape or form.”

House Minority Leader Sal Pace, D- Pueblo, agreed last Thursday that letting the database expire may be the right thing.

“My gut feeling is that if bad guys want to get their hands on guns, they do,” Pace said. “We shouldn’t be running a law about citizens exercising their constitutional rights, at the expense of other constitutional rights, without having evidence showing that we’re preventing any future crimes.”emphasis added
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=11093

Sal Pace strikes me as a Democrat who understands the gun issue.

Sal Pace

Sal Pace is a legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado. Elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2008, Pace represents House District 46, which encompasses western Pueblo, Colorado.<2>. Pace is also the Colorado House Minority Leader-select.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Pace#cite_note-briefsl-10

[Katya Mullethov]

1. If they spent as much money on it as Canada or BATFE&GH's did on such record keeping

It would then be a more useful crime solving tool (Like Canada's registration industry ) and would not be riddled with inaccuracies (Like the BATFE&GH). The naysayers refuse to accept that it is exactly this type of innovative thinking that is driving our national economic recovery .

[RSillsbee]

2. What they're not telling you

Is that the "database' is a county by county thing some county sheriffs participate. most don't. I believe Denver, Arappahoe, Larimer and two other counties provide names for the 'database". It's a waste of finances

[cleanhippie]

3. So what you are saying is...

that allowing this to expire would be a DOUBLE dose of common sense. One dose because it is asinine, as the guy stated, and another dose because its financially irresponsible.

Thats a great catch. Thanks.

[jazzhound]

4. Possibly a *triple* dose of common sense.

One dose because it is asinine, another because it is financially irresponsible, and yet another because it represents one more assault on a wedge issue that the R's have been clubbing us with for decades.