Changes to the Tiahrt Amendment Will Allow Local Governments Access to Gun Trafficking Data

President Obama is proposing changes to the "Tiahrt Amendment" in the Department of Justice 2010 budget which would allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to share gun trace data with federal ,state and local law enforcement agencies and allow prosecutors access to that information. Since the passage of the amendment in 2003, law enforcement could only request trace data for guns used in individual crimes. Now local law enforcement agencies will have access to the complete trace data base which will allow them to analyze gun trafficking data. From the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website:

The Department of Justice's FY 2010 budget, released today by the White House,
removes the restriction that limits access to federal crime gun trace data to
state and local police investigations of individual crimes. That restriction
prevents them from investigating the broader criminal networks that may be
behind those crimes. The new language would enable state and local law
enforcement to have full access to ATF's gun trace database to analyze gun
trafficking patterns. The White House budget leaves unchanged the Tiahrt
Amendment restrictions that prevent ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct
inventory inspections to detect lost and stolen guns and a requirement that the
FBI destroy gun background check records within 24 hours. Both
restrictions inhibit law enforcement's ability to detect illegal straw purchases
and guns lost and stolen from gun stores - two of the major methods criminals
use to get guns, according to the ATF.

Obama had promised to repeal the Tiahrt amendment but this compromise seems to be the best he was able to accomplish this year. Striking down the full amendment would have brought the wrath of the NRA lobby down on congress and given fodder to those individuals who think Obama wants to restrict gun ownership. This deal allows him some movement on the issue with tacit approval from the NRA:

Christopher Cox, an NRA spokesman, stopped shy of endorsing the reform but did
not oppose it: “While we do not believe any change is necessary, we appreciate
the President’s decision to support law enforcement and not gun control
activists.”

This small step allows local governments to begin identifying dealers who are selling a large number of guns that wind up in the hands of criminals. They can then investigate those dealers and determine why so many firearms bought by their clients wind up in the hands of crininals.

The mayors of Youngstown, Warren and other local cities should establish a regional investigative task force to use the trace data from the BATF database to determine where guns used in local crimes are coming from and investigate those firearms dealers. They could also determine if the guns are being imported from out of state or if local dealers are contributing to the violence which is threatening the area as well as seeing if the reverse is true; i.e. are we the source of guns used in crimes in other parts of the country?

There have been eight murders in Youngstown so far this year. Warren was rocked by the unconsionable murder of an 11 year old boy on April 13th. Yesterday afternoon someone shot at a house on Crandall Ave. and narrowly avoided killing a 12 year old boy who was sitting in a car parked outside. With summer around the corner and an upswing in violence sure to follow, local governments should agressively use this newly available trace data to see how guns are being trafficked and in where they are coming from.