A researcher simulates a check done for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System or NICS, at the FBI’s criminal justice center in Bridgeport, W.Va. November 27, Black Friday, broke an FBI record for the number of firearms background checks. The agency said that it processed 185,345 background checks — roughly two per second. (Matt Stroud, The Associated Press)
Re: “Tighten the visa waiver program,” Dec. 4 editorial.
The Postap call to tighten the visa waiver program, while laudable, displays the same naïve wishful thinking that the Obama administration touts as it guarantees Americans a strong and effective vetting process for immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere. The dirty little, unspoken truth is that background checks as currently conducted for gun purchases and immigration are hopelessly flawed and utterly ineffective because they are superficial and easily manipulated. The occasional computer-generated disqualifier is an anomaly, not a background check.
As someone who conducted real background checks for over 15 years, I assert that background checks based on interviews with the subject of the check (which is what immigrant checks are mostly based upon) are of no use whatsoever.
Because the government does almost nothing to investigate beyond what the subject says, the background check is little more than an exercise in false hope.
Anthony T. Accetta, Denver
This letter was published in the Dec. 8 edition.
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