Update – December 2007:
Mayors Against Illegal Guns is pleased that in its omnibus appropriations bill that has been signed into law, Congress has rejected a more insidious version of the Tiahrt Amendment that threatened police officers with prison terms for using the data to map illegal gun trafficking. Also, while the coalition is staunchly opposed to the anti-police Tiahrt Amendment provisions that remain, we are pleased that Congress eliminated the Tiahrt Amendment’s geographic restriction on data requests, clarified that local law enforcement may share the data ATF provides to them, and gave ATF wider authority to publish summary reports about trace data.  These were all steps in the right direction and changes that Mayors Against Illegal Guns called for.
Read Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ December 21, 2007 statement on the improvements to FY08 version of the Tiahrt Amendment
Read the text of the FY08 Tiahrt Amendment
Read a summary of the improvements in the FY08 Tiahrt Amendment
Visit ProtectPolice.org for additional background

ATF Trace Data Reports: In the wake of the national campaign of mayors, police, and concerned citizens to get access to more trace data, ATF began releasing trace data reports that it had withheld in the years since the Tiahrt Amendment first passed. Click here to see the ATF reports.

The so-called "Tiahrt Amendment" is an appropriations rider that restricts cities' access to and use of ATF trace data.

These amendments have become increasingly restrictive since Fiscal Year 2003.

Provisions of the FY 2006 Tiahrt Amendment:

• Prevents ATF from publishing reports that use trace data to analyze the flow of crime guns nationally.
• Limits local governments' access to ATF trace data.
• Prevents law enforcement from accessing trace data outside its geographic jurisdiction.
• Prevents trace data from being used as evidence in any state license revocation, civil lawsuit, or other administrative proceeding (unless filed by ATF).

Provisions of the FY2005 Tiahrt Amendment:

• Prevented ATF from publishing reports that use trace data to analyze the flow of crime guns nationally.
• Limited local governments' access to ATF trace data.
• Prevented law enforcement from accessing trace data outside its geographic jurisdiction.
• Prevented trace data from being subpoenaed or acquired via discovery in any state license revocation, civil lawsuit, or other administrative proceeding (unless filed by ATF).

Provisions of the FY2004 Tiahrt Amendment:

• No federal money could be used to disclose to the public the contents of ATF's trace database.
• Therefore prevented ATF from publishing reports that use trace data to analyze the flow of crime guns nationally.

Provisions of the FY2003 Tiahrt Amendment:

• Limited ATF's ability to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

• Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
• Senate Appropriations Committee vote on the Tiahrt Amendment

• Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
• House Appropriations Committee vote on the Tiahrt Amendment