The Public Endangered

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for two years has investigated how Congress has created special rules for gun stores that protect even the biggest sellers of guns to criminals.

It seems a simple enough proposition that most law-and-order enthusiasts can embrace. Find out where guns involved in crimes come from and act to stanch the flow — particularly if leverage is available because of the federal licenses that gun stores must possess.

But information identifying these stores essentially dried up in 2003, after Congress inserted secrecy language into a budget bill. The amendment came from U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been releasing information ranking the worst offending stores. No longer, and the public is endangered as a result.

In February, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn labeled as "a crock" the audacious claim by amendment supporters that the measure was necessary to protect officers. He's still right. Congress must repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, and President Barack Obama must unravel other restrictions he's added.

Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich detailed the secrecy in a recent article, as part of an ongoing "Wiped Clean" series, also reporting on how gun stores threatened with license revocation clear the books of their troubles with ATF by relinquishing their licenses, after which a family member, friend or employee gets a new license — even if the original principal remains involved in the business.

So, while Congress and the president fix this loophole that prevents police from tracing guns, they must also make it harder for gun businesses that shouldn't be in business to keep on selling.

Thanks in large part to the influence of the National Rifle Association, Congress has long had a blind side when it comes to guns.

But metro Milwaukee's own example should trump even those campaign contribution sweeteners with which the NRA has been plying members of Congress.

This includes Tiahrt and even Rep. David Obey, the outgoing House Appropriations chairman, who first voted against the amendment, then, puzzlingly, for it.

This is a national problem. There is legitimate gun ownership, and then there is the opposite. The veil of secrecy must be lifted, and offending gun stores must be closed.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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