International Herald Tribune Editorial - The gun lobby's Senate

International Herald Tribune Editorial - The gun lobby's Senate
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: July 10, 2007


Given a choice last month between helping local police combat illegal gun trafficking and helping the National Rifle Association protect rogue gun dealers responsible for arming violent criminals, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee made the outrageously wrong choice.

Bowing to the politically powerful gun lobby, the committee set back the effort spearheaded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and leading law enforcement groups to repeal the reckless Tiahrt amendment. First passed in 2003, it denies police and local governments access to essential information about guns used to commit crimes.

In a bipartisan collapse to the NRA, the Senate committee also approved new language that actually threatens law enforcement officials with jail time if they dare use federal gun-purchasing data to try to address the problem of gun trafficking. Under the nefarious new amendment, police would have to certify, under penalty of criminal sanctions, that every trace requested from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was for a specific criminal investigation.

The measure would explicitly ban disclosure of trace data to mayors and other officials. In a further slap to Bloomberg, the provision seeks to quash New York City's litigation against bad gun dealers by making retroactive the Tiahrt amendment's ban on courtroom admissibility of trace data.

Striking this despicable provision is now a crucial order of business for the full Senate. And in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has pledged to try to repeal the original Tiahrt amendment, urgently needs to take up the fight. If local law enforcement leaders have the courage to go after shady gun dealers and traffickers, Congress should, finally, have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby.