Government Ends Release of Gun Records

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The government no longer is releasing records tracking the source of firearms used in crimes, a concession to the gun lobby approved by Congress last month.

The change was enforced for the first time last week when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives turned down Freedom of Information Act requests made by The Associated Press and others for certain gun records.

The change bars the release of any information that was gathered regarding gun dealers and forces the ATF to more quickly purge information obtained in background checks of buyers. Law enforcement agencies still would have access.

The measure was added at the request of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., to the big spending bill for multiple government agencies that was approved by Congress. The Bush administration, gun groups and other supporters said it was needed to ensure police investigations were not compromised by the release of data and to protect gun dealers from those who would use the information to unfairly tar dealers.


more........

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-gun-records,0,3111752.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[denverbill]

1. Well, praise the Lord.

For a second there, I was afraid we had stopped kowtowing to the whims of the gun lobby. It's nice to know Congress hasn't stopped pandering to the merchants of death!

[veganwitch]

2. the government wont release info about guns...

but doctors are supposed to release private patient information about abortions.

the doublethink amazes me!

[vpigrad]

3. Sigh

Why aren't they releasing info about all of those people, and not just those that are already caught, that have those things? We have the right to know if we live near one of those violent people.

[NickB79]

4. Who are "those people"?

?

[llmart]

5. Well, I can see...

now that all that talk about "homeland security" was just a front. We can get info on everything else, but heaven help us if we get info on a criminal's gun purchases. What hypocrisy.

[Frangible]

6. Not sure I agree with this...

But those records WERE being used improperly by the media.

They were saying, "X dealer had a lot of guns used in crime traced back to it, therefore X dealer is scum" or whatever.

The problem is, it was pretty much just big dealers.

Think of it like this: if they traced cars used in crime, the cars would be most likely traced back to the biggest dealer. It doesn't mean the dealer was evil, it just means they sold a lot of volume.

Now, if they paint thing in a percentage perspective, that's fine. But that's not what happened. They were using the absolute numbers, which is rather silly and flawed.

[reprobate]

7. Wrong. It wasn't big dealers. It was the small dealers.

The larger dealers couldn't afford to lose their licenses. It was the smaller dealers who would find ways around the law, like having a friend of the felon buy the gun.

In fact the ATF had a cd available that showed how many illegal sales were made by each dealer. This would have been a terrific way to crack down. But the NRA pushed thru a law that make it illegal to collect this information.

As a gun owner, shooter (not a hunter, I can't kill living four legged critters), and former LEO I cannot oppose the keeping of this information. Coincidentally, why is it only the NRA that wants this information destroyed? While the police want the opposite?

I don't know why the NRA has turned so radical, but I cut up and returned my life membership a number of years ago.