During 2006 and in the months just after Mayors Against Illegal Guns was formed, coalition mayors took action to oppose three bills that would have permanently tied the hands of law enforcement by limiting access to vital trace data on crime guns and by making it hard to hold accountable gun dealers that break the law.  In part because of the coalition's efforts, the following three damaging measures were defeated in Congress:

H.R. 5005

• Codified Tiahrt amendments, including limits on access to and use of gun trace data.
• Removed the requirement that multiple sales be reported to state or local law enforcement.
• Prevented the federal government from moving records of gun sales from microfilm to an electronic database.

H.R. 5092

• Prevented ATF from penalizing dealers for certain lies in ATF paperwork or for failure to take proper care of their records.
• Allowed a dealer 60 days to sell off their inventory after ATF revoked their license.

H.R. 1384

• Allowed people to buy handguns in any state without holding dealers accountable for complying with laws of the buyer's state.