20070713newsmayor_tiahrt

225 Mayors, 34 National, State, and Regional Law Enforcement Organizations, 212 Law Enforcement Executives and 28 Editorial Boards Are Opposed to the Tiahrt Amendment

July 13, 2007 (MINNEAPOLIS) – Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak today harshly criticized the U.S. House Appropriations Committee for voting to support the federal Tiahrt Amendment that restricts local police from using illegal gun trace data, an essential crime-fighting tool. The action follows a recent similar vote in the U.S. Senate.

“At a time when many cities face the challenge of gun-related crime, I am deeply disappointed that Congress has chosen not to stand with local police in their battle to get guns off the streets of Minneapolis and other cities across America,” Mayor Rybak said. “Instead of standing with the victims of illegal gun violence, Congress has chosen to stand with special interests who peddle fear and misinformation. This Amendment is wrong and we will not give up trying to get rid of it.”

“Month after month Minneapolis police officers seize record amounts of illegal guns from our streets and month after month more illegal guns show up in our city,” Mayor Rybak added. “Last year alone, Minneapolis police seized more than 1,200 guns from our streets. This is a national problem that must be addressed at a national level and Congress needs to stop preventing our police from doing their jobs.”

The Tiahrt Amendment prevents police from effectively addressing gun crime by looking at trends, sources, and the ability to "connect the dots" between illegal guns and crime, including:

Preventing local governments and police from accessing federal gun trace data from areas outside their immediate geographic jurisdiction,
Preventing sharing of trace data with other cities, preventing use of trace data in state and local civil enforcement actions, including gun license revocations, and
Preventing the Bureau of Alcohol Firearms Tobacco and Explosives from publishing reports that use gun trace data to analyze nationwide gun trafficking patterns.

The removal of the Tiahrt Amendment is the top legislative priority of the 225-member Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, of which Mayor Rybak is a member.

“Mayors from cities big and small, from across the political spectrum, agree it’s time to start finding common ground on real solutions to this problem and get tough on those small minority of gun sellers who repeatedly violate the law and put our cities in harms way,” Mayor Rybak said.

The effort to remove the Tiahrt Amendment has wide support from law enforcement. Thirty-four national, state and regional law enforcement organizations are against the Tiahrt Amendment – including the National Sheriffs’ Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police and the Texas Association of Chiefs of Police. Further, 28 newspaper editorial boards opposed the Tiahrt Amendment, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Indianapolis Star, and the Wichita Eagle – the hometown paper of the Amendment’s author, Representative Todd Tiahrt. Also, 212 law enforcement executives are against the Amendment on behalf of their jurisdictions.

For more information about the Mayors’ Coalition, visit www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org.

City of Minneapolis

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