End ban on sharing data about firearms' sales, use in crimes.

July 6, 2007

Since 2003, Congress has done more to protect gun traffickers than the cities plagued by gunfire. The illegal gun trade continues under the protection of the Tiahrt amendment, named after the Kansas congressman who introduced it. The amendment prevents public release of federal gun data or sharing much of it with local police departments.

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The amendment prohibits the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from releasing data about national patterns of the use firearms in crimes. It bars local police departments from access to gun trace data outside their jurisdiction. It prohibits the use of federal gun trace information in civil proceedings, such as a state permit revocation or lawsuit.

Thanks to the Tiahrt amendment, the public and local police do not know how many firearms were used in crimes last year or the source of these crime guns. Police are hampered in their effort to shut off the flow of guns that are used in crimes in their communities.

The Tiahrt amendment is up for renewal this year as part of the appropriations bill for the Justice Department. Its repeal is supported by the mayors of 225 cities, including New Haven and Hartford, and 32 national and state law enforcement groups, including the Connecticut Chiefs of Police Association.

As it stands now, a local police department may ask, but the ATF can't say, which local gun dealers have sold multiple guns that were used in crimes, sold guns that shortly afterward were used in crimes or regularly sold batches of guns. These are all indicators of gun trafficking. This is information that would help the police curb gun violence if the Tiahrt amendment were repealed.