July 2, 2007
Given a choice last week between helping local police combat illegal gun trafficking and helping the National Rifle Association protect rogue gun dealers responsible for arming violent criminals, the Senate Appropriations Committee made the outrageously wrong choice.
Bowing to the politically powerful gun lobby, the committee set back the effort spearheaded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and leading law enforcement groups to repeal the reckless Tiahrt amendment. First passed in 2003, it denies police and local governments access to essential information about guns used to commit crimes.
In a bipartisan collapse to the N.R.A., the Senate committee, by a vote of 19 to 10, also approved new language that actually threatens law enforcement officials with jail time if they dare use federal gun-purchasing data to try to systematically address the problem of gun trafficking.
Under the nefarious new amendment proposed by Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama - and backed by all 14 G.O.P. committee members and five Democrats - police would have to certify, under penalty of criminal sanctions, that every trace requested from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was for a specific criminal investigation. Use of trace data for broader purposes, like identifying trafficking patterns, targeting interdiction points and allocating law enforcement resources, could subject police officers to five years in prison. A year ago, even the Gonzales Justice Department said imposing such criminal penalties would be too extreme, citing the "chilling effect" on legitimate police investigations.
The measure would explicitly ban disclosure of trace data to mayors and other officials with crime-fighting duties…
Striking this despicable provision is now a crucial order of business for the full Senate. And in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has pledged to try to repeal the original Tiahrt amendment, urgently needs to take up the fight.
If local law enforcement leaders have the courage to go after shady gun dealers and traffickers, Congress should, finally, have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby.
