June 14, 2007

Law enforcement officials need all the ammunition they can get in fighting crime and we believe that an amendment that keeps them from doing that essentially handcuffs them.

The amendment we are referring to is the Tiahrt Amendment, named after U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.

The amendment, which seems to get more restrictive each year, basically withholds the sales records the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms keeps on all guns recovered at crime scenes.

Recently, Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker and 224 mayors across the country put a full-page advertisement in USA Today titled "Mayors Against Illegal Guns."

We commend Walker and the other mayors for voicing their disapproval of this law and side with them that the ATF should release gun-sale tracking data to local and state law enforcement officials investigating a crime.

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Walker made a very good point when she stated that the amendment makes it necessary for police to contact other police departments in each jurisdiction of interest to seek gun tracking information, rather than being able to track sales comprehensively through a federal clearinghouse.

Walker added her name to the list of mayors whose names appear in the USA Today ad after conferring with Bowling Green Police Chief Doug Hawkins and confirming that removing of tracing data restrictions was something the department supported.

It is important to note that this is not an effort to restrict the right to bear arms as stated in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

We believe law enforcement officials need all the help they can get in solving gun crimes, so why make their jobs any harder than they already are? The restrictions in the Tiahrt Amendment that hinder them should go.