Take off the blinders

The odious Tiahrt Amendment must not be allowed to remain as part of the Justice
Department spending bill. It keeps police officers from doing their job.
From the Journal Sentinel

Posted: July 11, 2007

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=631960&format=print

The House Appropriations Committee has a chance today to show that it can think
straight despite the mind-addling effects of the cash and power of the gun lobby. We
urge the committee, led by Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.) to do just that by rejecting the
noxious Tiahrt Amendment.

The amendment - named for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), who originally sponsored it -
prohibits the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from
releasing analyses of data it has mined by tracing the history of guns used in
crimes. The amendment has been attached to the Justice Department's budget every year
since 2003.

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:26:08 -0500, S.Smith wrote:

If the police in Milwaukee have a gun that was used in a crime, they can
ask BATF for a trace and BATF will provide it.

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:11:45 -0500, Jeff Dege jdege.visi.com> wrote:

Why should they have to ask the BATF for anything?

Sounds like just more needless bureaucracy to me.

- Scott Smith: liberal-bias@sludgereport.org
Sludge Report: http://www.sludgereport.org
Blue States Rising: http://www.bluestaterising.blogspot.com

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:23:10 -0500, S.Smith wrote:

Because BATF has the data, and BATF runs the traces.

--
By no means all socialists were killers or amoral. Many were sincere
humanitarians; mostly these were the adherents of democratic socialism.
But democratic socialism turned out to be a contradiction...

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:04:12 -0500, Jeff Dege jdege.visi.com> wrote:

Why block the local police forces from getting that information?

"Jeff Dege" jdege.visi.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.07.12.03.04.11.72534@jdege.visi.com...

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:13:43 -0500, S.Smith wrote:

The BATF isn't blocking local police forces from asking dealers who they
sold a gun to. And some states maintain records of their own, requiring
every dealer to inform the state of every gun sale. The Tiarht amendment
affects those systems not at all.

But all the manufacturers and importers in the US report to the BATF which
dealer they sold a gun to, so if a state or local law enforcement agency
has a gun which they want to trace, the place to start is with the BATF's
database. The BATF will check the database to identify the dealer, and
then contact the dealer to determine the purchaser.

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:21:51 -0500, Jeff Dege jdege.visi.com>
wrote:

I guess you haven't read much about what this amendment does.

So we are all for tracing gun data state-to-state, but when it comes
to the administration's international-domestic wire-tapping program to
track terrorist chatter coming into the US we throw a fit.

Liberal Pussies.

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:30:18 -0500, S.Smith wrote:

Exactly. BATF can release information concerning specific guns involved
in police investigations, but cannot release aggregate data.