Time to end the Tiahrt amendment

July 12, 2007

Here are a few things to ponder as Congress considers whether to continue barring access to federal firearms data that would help local officials root out gun dealers whose wares consistently turn up in the hands of violent criminals:

There are about 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States each year.

Approximately 12,000 of those deaths are homicides.

One percent of gun dealers sell almost 60 percent of the guns traced each year that are involved in crimes.

About 85 percent of the nation's gun dealers have no crime guns traced to them in any given year.

Those numbers illuminate the lunacy of allowing a handful of rogue dealers to operate under the radar while supplying violent criminals with the tools of their trade. So, what has Congress elected to do?

Every year since 2003 it has passed the Tiahrt amendment - named for its sponsor, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) - that bars federal officials from sharing cumulative gun trace data with local officials who would use it to track patterns in gun trafficking. The data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are available to local police, but only for use in a specific criminal investigation. Unless Congress drops the amendment, local officials won't be allowed to use cumulative data that could help put corrupt gun dealers out of business. Incredibly, under the Senate version, police who use the data in that way could go to jail.

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on the amendment today as part of a Justice Department spending bill…

The fact is the powerful gun lobby likes the Tiahrt amendment, and too many members of Congress really like the gun lobby's money. Congress already has given gun makers and dealers immunity from most lawsuits. That's a mistake that will be compounded if Congress continues to shield unscrupulous gun dealers who are prospering in the bloody business of arming criminals.