Congress Nearing Rejection of Gun Amendment, Democrat Says

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Congress Nearing Rejection of Gun Amendment, Democrat Says
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
July 11, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - House Democrats are "one vote away" from repealing an appropriations amendment that restricts local law enforcement's ability to access federal gun trace data.

Second Amendment supporters say the amendment protects police investigations and prevents anti-gun groups from using gun trace data in "frivolous" civil lawsuits against the firearms industry.

But the opponents of the amendment argue that the restrictions tie investigators' hands. They say the gun-trace data is an essential crime-fighting tool that should be made available to police.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) declared Tuesday that opponents of the Tiahrt Amendment are only one vote short of preventing the measure's inclusion in the 2008 appropriations for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement (ATF).

He made the statement as a news conference sponsored New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), disbanded under threat of thunderstorms.

Austin Durrer, a spokesman for Moran, told Cybercast News Service the congressman "was encouraging the crowd to get out and make their voices heard on Capitol Hill in lieu of Thursday's mark-up."

"Every vote is crucial during the committee vote," he said.

The House Appropriations Committee, on which Moran serves, is scheduled to review the appropriations bill Thursday morning. Bloomberg said Tuesday that the mark-up is a chance to see "what the new [Democrat-controlled] House of Representatives is really made of."

The amendment, named after original sponsor Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), has been included in each ATF appropriations bill since 2003. It restricts local law enforcement's access to federal data that traces guns used in crimes back to the stores where they were purchased.

Under the provision, local law enforcement agencies are allowed access to trace data for guns used in crimes, but the data can only be used in specific criminal investigations. It explicitly prevents cities from requesting gun trace data for the purpose of building a case against gun dealers.

Opponents of the amendment, including Bloomberg, argue that the restrictions tie investigators' hands. At the news conference Tuesday, the New York City mayor called the amendment "the most anti-cop, soft-on-crime law Congress has passed in years."

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