Industry pressure hides gun traces, protects dealers from public scrutiny

[onehandle]

Under the law, investigators cannot reveal federal firearms tracing information that shows how often a dealer sells guns that end up seized in crimes. The law effectively shields retailers from lawsuits, academic study and public scrutiny. It also keeps the spotlight off the relationship between rogue gun dealers and the black market in firearms.

Such information used to be available under a simple Freedom of Information Act request. But seven years ago, under pressure from the gun lobby, Congress blacked out the information by passing the so-called Tiahrt amendment, named for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.). The law removed from the public record a government database that traces guns recovered in crimes back to the dealers.

"It was extraordinary, and the most offensive thing you can think of," said Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group for police chiefs. "The tracing data, which is now secret, helped us see the big picture of where guns are coming from."

The amendment also kept the data from being used by cities and interest groups to sue the firearms industry, an avenue of attack modeled after the lawsuits against tobacco companies. "They were trying to drive a stake through the heart of the industry," said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for firearms dealers and makers. "It took an act of Congress to stop the litigation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102302996.html

The gun industry protects its profits by hiding statistics and stifling criminal investigations, no matter the cost in human lives.

Attached to the article is video about the protected Realco criminal straw purchase store.

Expect a lot more corporation protection acts from the next Congress if we lose the House.

[Taitertots]

1. How dare they protect people who have broken no laws from arbitrary and capricious litigation

These lawsuits make about as much sense as suing car dealerships because their cars get used in DUI car crashes.

[geckosfeet]

2. In order to enact effective legislation you need information.

Read more: Industry pressure hides gun traces, protects dealers from public scrutiny

For three decades, tracing was used mostly to help police catch criminals linked to recovered guns. But in 1995, Professor Glenn L. Pierce of Northeastern University analyzed ATF tracing data and discovered that a tiny fraction of gun dealers - 1 percent - were the original sellers of a majority of the guns seized at crime scenes - 57 percent.

Pierce's analysis "blew everybody away" at the ATF, recalled Joseph R. Vince Jr., then deputy chief of the firearms division. Law enforcement might be able to reduce crime by focusing on a relative handful of gun dealers.

The Clinton administration seized on the findings to encourage police to request a trace on every gun they confiscated. In 2000, Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who oversaw the ATF, announced "intensive inspections" of the 1 percent - 1,012 gun stores.

The inspections detected serious problems. Nearly half of the dealers could not account for all of their guns, for a total of 13,271 missing firearms. More than half were out of compliance with record-keeping. And they had made nearly 700 sales to potential traffickers or prohibited people. More than 450 dealers were sanctioned, and 20 were referred for license revocation.

Read more: Industry pressure hides gun traces, protects dealers from public scrutiny

How is it 'arbitrary and capricious' to use data that clearly indicates where guns used in crimes are coming from to investigate crimes and enact legislation?

[PJPhreak]

3. Figures...

Just what I would expect from one of my states "Wounderful" Reps..Tom "The Teagagger" Tiahrt

Fukin Bastage!