NSSF: The ATF Keeps Breaking Laws Barring Release of Gun Trace Data

 

The executive branch of government is charged with enforcing federal laws. Part of that, for better or worse, includes the ATF and their enforcement of laws regarding alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives--which sounds like a hell of a July 4th party if you ask me.

Sometimes, though, enforcing the law requires someone like the ATF to not do things, such as releasing specific data. 

I'm talking about gun trace data, which they cannot lawfully release due to the Tiahrt Amendment, which bars that specific act. It's not a difficult law to follow, either. You just don't do something that requires more work for ATF personnel. It should be as easy as it gets.

Unfortunately, it seems that the ATF is completely unable to do so and the NSSF's Larry Keane is less than pleased by this.

Someone at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) believes it is easier – or more politically convenient – to roll over to gun control activists and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit than it is to defend a federal law protecting firearm trace data.

For the second time in less than a year, the ATF chose to ignore the Tiahrt Amendment – the federal law that prohibits the disclosure of sensitive firearm trace data to anyone outside of law enforcement circles for use in a bona fide investigation – and instead released it to the public. This time, the ATF handed over the trace data to The Trace, the mouthpiece for the activist gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Just six months ago, ATF handed over firearm trace data to USA Today through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request – despite the fact that firearm trace data isn’t subject to FOIA requests...

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