NRA ALLEGES STATE COVERUP ON FELONY FILES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993                   TAG: 9301280255
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
NRA ALLEGES STATE COVERUP ON FELONY FILES
An official of the National Rifle Association accused U.S. Attorney Richard Cullen and state police Superintendent Carl Baker on Wednesday of "covering up a bureaucratic scandal" involving felony arrest warrants.
Tanya K. Metaksa, an NRA board member from Springfield, said Baker told a group of law enforcement officials in a private meeting this month that the names of 12,000 alleged felons have not been entered into the database used to check the police records of gun purchasers.
The so-called "instant records check" was adopted by the legislature in 1989 and is touted nationally as a progressive way of keeping guns out of criminal hands.
Metaksa said the NRA's source at the meeting, whom she declined to identify, quoted Cullen as urging that the information be kept secret. Cullen was concerned that the NRA would use the information against him and to thwart further gun control efforts, the source reportedly said.
Cullen has been at the forefront of the move to limit handgun purchases in Virginia to one per month.
Metaksa's charge was leveled during a meeting of the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association, an organization of reporters covering the state Capitol. The program featured a debate between Sarah Brady, founder of Handgun Control Inc., and Metaksa.
Cullen could not be reached for comment Wednesday but O. Randolph Rollins, the Wilder administration's secretary of public safety, said it's no secret that several thousand outstanding felony warrants have not been put in the state's database.
The figure was between 30,000 and 40,000 as recently as last year, Rollins said, before Baker launched a drive to whittle it down. Many of the cases that hadn't gotten in the computer had been dismissed or involved individuals who already were in prison on other charges, he said.
Rollins said that other paperwork demands on local police, who do much of the data entry, slow the process.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB