Finally today, the AP has coverage of the latest on the Tiahrt Amendment. Despite all of the talk lately about finding solutions to gun violence, Congress is still working against our law enforcement agents on actually holding gun dealers accountable for their actions. Police officers need information about where crime guns come from, so they can determine where criminals are getting their guns. But an amendment proposed by Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas would actually limit police access to that information, effectively blocking them from doing their jobs to get firearms out of criminal hands.
When handguns with bullets that can pierce body armor showed up on the streets of New Jersey, Sen. Frank Lautenberg asked federal regulators to share data that could help local police figure out where the weapons were coming from.
That information, the New Jersey Democrat was told, is off-limits.
The amendment that bars such sharing of gun trace data has now touched off a feud between its sponsor, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and a coalition of more than 200 mayors led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
Insisting that gun trace data is an essential crimefighting tool for cities, Bloomberg used his own funds as seed money, formed Mayors Against Illegal Guns and made repealing Tiahrt’s amendment its number one issue this year.
Tiahrt and Bloomberg met in Washington earlier this year to try to find a compromise. “I thought we were close,” Tiahrt said.
But when Tiahrt showed his proposed changes, “it was one step forward, three steps back,” said Bloomberg’s criminal justice coordinator, John Feinblatt.
So last week, the mayors’ group began airing television ads against Tiahrt’s amendment in several media markets, including Tiahrt’s Wichita district — a step Tiahrt said went too far.
“I think that personal attack is something that’s very upsetting to me and very unjustified and a great mischaracterization of all my efforts here,” Tiahrt said.
We’re not sure exactly how the ads, which feature a police officer explaining why the law would keep him from information he needs to shut down illegal gun trading actually constitute a “personal attack” against Tiahrt– he proposed the law and he’s responsible for its presence in Congress. Instead, it’s Tiahrt who goes on the personal attacks; while it’s clear that police officers need this information to protect Americans from gun violence, he’s sitting there claiming it’s their tactic to push some sort of political agenda. As if police officers in this country have any interests other than keeping their officers and our citizens safe.
Bloomberg’s aide countered that the amendment “makes police officers do their job with a blindfold on.”
“What you want to know is, for my jurisdiction, are there a small number of dealers who keep supplying crime guns to my city? And you can’t get that information,” Feinblatt said.
Under the Tiahrt amendment, local law enforcement agencies can obtain gun trace data from ATF if it concerns a specific criminal investigation or prosecution. But many police chiefs, mayors and their supporters in Congress say cities need access to ATF’s broader data to help fight crime.
In New Jersey’s case, Lautenberg said, Tiahrt’s amendment made it harder for police to identify trends in illegal gun trafficking, the types of guns criminals are getting, and which gun shops provided the weapons.
“We need to be able to identify where guns come from to combat gun violence and protect our communities,” Lautenberg said.
Tiahrt sees a political motive at work, noting that the use of trace data in lawsuits and other proceedings led to the revocation of some gun dealers’ licenses.
“They say they want the data to prevent crime, but they have no plan to use that data to prevent crime,” Tiahrt said. “I think perhaps what they want it for is to move a political agenda forward. A gun control agenda possibly.”
First things first, it’s an insult to police officers everywhere that Tiahrt thinks they are only fighting for this information for a political end. Our law enforcement agents are working on the streets every day to protect us– the only agenda they have is to make our citizens safer and make sure that the law is enforced, and to suggest otherwise is idiotic.
But we are curious– just what is in this information that could push forward an agenda for stronger gun legislation? Could it be that some gun dealers around the country aren’t following the laws completely? Could it be that some gun dealers actually do allow criminals to buy firearms from them, and could it be that this information proves exactly that? If Tiahrt thinks cops are after this information to support a political agenda, just what is it that gun dealers are trying to hide? And what’s his political agenda in keeping this information hidden from police officers? Maybe he’s trying to protect gun dealers who have actually sold weapons to criminals. Maybe he’s really a shill of the gun lobby, and working for their interests instead of the safety of Americans.
When it first passed in 2003, Tiahrt’s amendment had the blessing of the powerful National Rifle Association. The NRA also has been Tiahrt’s fourth-largest contributor since he was elected to Congress in 1994, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said part of the Tiahrt amendment’s goal is to protect gun manufacturers and gun dealers from lawsuits.
“With that background from ATF, you can learn who the corrupt gun dealers are and how they’re fueling the illegal trafficking in guns,” Helmke said. “Without that information, it’s a lot harder to do it.”
Which tells you the real reason why Tiahrt is facing off against police officers and Bloomberg– he’s the NRA’s representative through and through.
