The Tiahrt Amendments, named for their original sponsor, U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), are provisions attached to federal spending bills that make it harder for law enforcement officers to aggressively pursue criminals who buy and sell illegal guns. The amendments restrict cities, states and even the police from fully accessing and using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) gun trace data, which can show where illegal guns are coming from, who buys them and how they get trafficked across state lines and into our communities. Furthermore, the Tiahrt provisions require the Federal Bureau of Investigation to destroy certain background check records within 24 hours, making it nearly impossible to use those records to help solve crimes or to identify gun buyers with criminal histories who were mistakenly approved. The Tiahrt Amendments also block ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct inventory checks to detect loss and theft, which law enforcement says is a dangerous back channel source for criminals who are in the market for illegal guns.
For years, the Tiahrt Amendments have been standing in the way of law enforcement efforts to stop the flow of illegal guns to criminals. But now, a coalition of 340 mayors and 200 police chiefs have called for repealing these damaging restrictions. And the coalition is pleased that President Obama, both during the campaign and since taking office, has taken a common sense stand against gun crime by joining the call for the Tiahrt restrictions to be removed.
How Tiahrt Harms Law Enforcement
While some components of the Tiahrt Amendments were improved in 2007, several damaging provisions continue to tie the hands of law enforcement.
State and local authorities are still restricted from having full access to aggregated trace data:
The Tiahrt Amendments force gun trace data requests to be made in connection with individual criminal investigations or prosecutions, blocking full access to the aggregate data that law enforcement need to examine gun trafficking patterns and make key connections between separate cases. Furthermore, state and local governments are prohibited from seeing trace data or using it in administrative license reviews.
NICS background check records are still destroyed within 24 hours:
The Tiahrt Amendments require the Justice Department to destroy the record of a buyer whose NICS background check was approved within 24 hours. This makes it harder to catch law-breaking gun dealers who falsify their records, and it makes it more difficult to identify and track straw purchasers who buy guns on behalf of criminals who wouldn't be able to pass a background check.
ATF still does not have the power to require dealer inventory checks to detect lost and stolen guns:
While dealers must notify ATF if they discover that guns from their inventories have been lost or stolen, the Tiahrt Amendments prevent ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct annual physical inventory checks to detect losses and thefts. ATF reported that in 2007 it found 30,000 guns missing from dealer inventories based on its inspection of just 9.3% of gun dealers.
The Campaign Against the Tiahrt Amendments
Since it was formed in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has been fighting the Tiahrt Amendment restrictions.
In 2007, more than 200 mayors joined with 30 national and state law enforcement organizations to wage a campaign against the Tiahrt Amendment restrictions. The campaign's efforts helped to defeat proposals to make the Tiahrt provisions even more restrictive, and also secured certain improvements to the amendments in the FY 2008 appropriations bill. While the limited changes made in 2007 were a step in the right direction, it is important to note that most of the anti-police provisions in the Amendments remain in place.
Key FY 2008 Improvements to the Tiahrt Amendments
Limited Freedom to Share Data Between Agencies: Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors are now explicitly authorized to share with each other any trace data they acquire connected to their criminal investigations.
Prior to this change, it was unclear whether law enforcement agencies were permitted to share gun trace data with each other.
Authorization to Release Limited Public Reports: ATF is now allowed to release limited statistical reports using aggregate gun trace data to analyze firearm trafficking. The scope of these reports is significantly less extensive than reports published prior to the enactment of the Tiahrt Amendments.
ATF released reports in late 2007 and 2008 that, for each state, listed which other states were the top sources of guns recovered by law enforcement. These reports provided no information about which dealers were top sources of interstate crime guns.
The coalition analyzed this state-by-state trace data for 2006 and 2007 to report new information about trends in the movement of illegal guns across state lines and to assess some of the factors that may be driving these trends. The report finds that states that supply crime guns at the highest rates have comparatively weak gun laws.
July, 2009
The Senate is reviewing reforms to the Tiahrt Amendments that were proposed by the Obama Administration and passed in the House. The proposal restores full access for law enforcement to the trace database. The proposal takes no action on other restrictions on background check data and inventory monitoring. Read the statements from the coalition co-chairs
Take Action on repealing the Tiahrt Amendments at protectpolice.org.
