Senate committee protects trace data security - Bloomberg loses a round

NRA-ILA welcomed the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee's action
[Thursday] to reinstate language commonly known as the Tiahrt Amendment into the
Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill. The amendment,
offered by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), passed with broad bipartisan
support. This language would keep sensitive firearm trace information
in the hands of law enforcement and out of the hands of politicians and
special interest groups to use to further their anti-gun crusades. The
committee also rejected a Lautenberg-Feinstein Amendment that would have
gutted the Shelby Amendment.

Click 'Read More' for the entire story.

The "vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee is a step forward in
NRA-ILA's ongoing fight to preserve trace information as a law
enforcement tool and ensure it is not abused to advance political
agendas. Senators Richard Shelby and Larry Craig (R-ID) stood up for
freedom and for law enforcement today and we are grateful for their
leadership on this matter," said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W.
Cox. "We know we will be engaged in a protracted battle with
billionaire politicians and their allies here on the Hill. We will
continue our hard work to ensure that the Shelby Amendment remains
American public policy as it has for the past five years."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had recently asked anti-gun
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to strip the language from the Senate
bill, which she did. By complying with Bloomberg's request, Sen.
Mikulski defied the appeals of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP),
representing over 300,000 rank and file law enforcement men and women
across the country, the Southern States Police Benevolent Association,
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), and the
Department of Justice (DOJ), who argued the pressing need to ensure that
this information remain exclusively in the hands of law enforcement.

These law enforcement agencies raised concerns that giving politicians
and the media access to this information will compromise the safety of
all their officers, particularly those involved in undercover work. It
would also severely impact the integrity of ongoing criminal
investigations.

"NRA-ILA is on the side of rank and file policemen and women while
Bloomberg and Mikulski have politicians, political appointees, and the
gun control lobby on their side," Cox said. "It is wrong for anyone to
play politics with the lives of law enforcement officers across this
country."

The gun control lobby, its political allies, and trial attorneys have
long coveted trace information. These data have been abused to harass
and to further politically-motivated lawsuits against firearm retailers
and manufacturers, and to undermine the "Protection of Lawful Commerce
in Arms Act."

In addition to Senator Shelby, NRA-ILA would like to thank the following
senators who voted for this pro-freedom and pro-law enforcement bill:
Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS), Ted
Stevens (R-AK), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Kit Bond
(R-MO), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Judd Gregg (R-NH),
Robert Bennett (R-UT), Larry Craig (R-ID), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX),
Sam Brownback (R-KS), Wayne Allard (R-CO), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Byron
Dorgan (D-ND), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson
(D-NE).