Gun tracing information sea change in the United States

The NJ Governor Jon S. Corzine along with NJ Attorney General Anne Milgram’s announcement of an agreement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to share gun tracing information last week came as a surprise to gun policy analysts, prompting a review of conventional interpretation of the Tiarht amendment that limits the release of gun tracing data to the states. The ATF signaled a similar change by releasing gun tracing data for every state this past Monday.

“We are asking that the Federal Government be part of the system. We provide the information that the police departments will receive, and local police precincts turn over information to the ATF through the State police," said a spokesperson for the New Jersey Governor. The gun safety package was launched last week in the aftermath of execution style killings in Newark early this month that shook the state. Other measures announced include the requirement to report missing, lost or stolen guns to the police and proposed gun courts to expedite the prosecution of gun related crimes.

Widely divulged as the first agreement of its kind, the New Jersey gun tracing agreement with the ATF has sparked debate among gun policy specialists. “The general understanding was that the ATF was not free to divulge gun tracing data in whole or in part, unless law enforcement required the data to conduct investigations into a specific case. This limitation is imposed by the Tiarht amendment that stipulates conditions for funding the ATF’s E-trace data bank,” said Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s spokesperson Zach Ragburn, “our lawyers are currently working out how this impacts gun policy.”

The NJ gun tracing initiative also follows a spate of gun tracing bills  proposed over the past six months that require reporting lost or stolen guns in a number of cities across the United States, among them cities in California, Illinois and Connecticut. According to Brady Center for Gun Violence’s Zach Ragburn, it signals a shift in the political climate of the nation, as laws that require reporting missing or stolen guns find supporters among both gun supporters and gun control advocates.

Gun control legislation effectiveness checked by lack of funding

“There has been in part a recognition that gun tracing legislation is helpful for both law enforcement and legal gun owners. By registering, gun owners whose guns have been lost or stolen may get their guns back. Law enforcement stands to gain too, they can ask gun traffickers for details on guns found at a crime scene, who can no longer allege that the weapon had been lost, for example,” said Ragburn.

In the view of gun policy analysts laws such as background checks and laws against gun trafficking are effective, but they need to be enforced. “None of this can translate into action however if law enforcement is not fully funded,” contends Ragburn, adding:

“Money is a big problem, maintaining data bases costs money, and despite living in a nation where 30 thousand people die from gun violence a year, it has not been a priority over the past few years.”

Which is where lies the fragility of the ATF and weight of the Tiarht amendment: “The ATF is under-funded, and the Tiarht amendment conditions its funding to controlling what information is released,” explained Ragburn.

By all accounts, the NJ agreement on gun tracing data is a step in a new direction, and so is the fact that the ATF released this past Monday gun tracing information on every state, signaling perhaps, a new phase in gun policy in the United States.

From Comunidad Segura:

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