Beginning in 2003, the National Rifle Association persuaded Congress to impose restrictions on how cities and elected officials can use and share the information they gather about guns used in crimes. These so-called “Tiahrt Amendments” also bar the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) from using an electronic database to organize the millions of records it holds, forcing the agency charged with enforcing gun laws in the Information Age to use a paper-based filing system.
The gun lobby has also made repeated attempts to eliminate ATF’s program to track bulk sales of assault weapons by dealers in the four states that border Mexico, a vital part of the U.S. efforts to curb the flow of assault weapons to drug gangs.
In several states, the NRA has resisted efforts by mayors to require gun owners to report when their firearms are lost or stolen. At least 1.4 million firearms went missing between 2005 and 2010 — a major avenue from the legitimate market into the criminal market.7