Keeping the NRA on the Run

The Daily News had an editorial up on Sunday blasting away some more at the mouthpiece for the gun industry. It's worth reading all of it so I'm not going to pick and choose. Wanted to point to a couple of things I was not aware of.

One is the Tiahrt Amendment.

 The Tiahrt Amendments require the FBI to destroy all approved gun purchaser records within 24 hours of approval, making it extremely difficult for ATF to retrieve firearms from prohibited persons who are mistakenly sold guns or from gun owners who become ineligible to possess guns. The destruction of gun purchaser records also limits ATF’s ability to quickly and efficiently trace crime guns.

Records of completed firearm sales are invaluable tools for law enforcement. These records are most useful when they are collected in a central database and retained permanently. In California, for example, handgun sales records are permanently retained in a California Department of Justice database. As a result, law enforcement agencies in the state are able to quickly trace the ownership of handguns recovered in crime. (Commencing January 1, 2014, long gun sales records also will be permanently retained by the California Department of Justice.)

Records regarding gun ownership also help protect law enforcement officers who must respond to emergency calls at private residences because they allow officers to determine if a person at a residence may own a firearm. In addition, firearm ownership records facilitate the relinquishment of firearms by persons who are convicted of a felony or otherwise become ineligible to possess guns.

Then there is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.

In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a federal statute which provides broad immunity to gun manufacturers and dealers in federal and state court. Generally speaking, the PLCAA prohibits “qualified civil liability actions,” which are defined as civil or administrative proceedings which “result[] from the criminal or lawful misuse” of firearms or ammunition. 

The editorial also mention a study by Johns Hopkins. There's too much to pick and choose from so I'm just linking to that as well. This is my method of bookmarking.

Since I believe what I linked to there is not what the Daily News was referring to I'm going to copy and paste from the editorial:

That requiring gun permits saves lives. After Missouri dropping its permit requirement, the state’s murder rate rose 16% and increased the body count by roughly 50 a year, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

That, over a recent multi-year period, the 14 states (like New York) with background checks for all handgun purchases had, compared to the other 36 states:

•  46% fewer domestic violence gun killings
•  48% fewer law enforcement officers shot dead
•  48% fewer gun suicides
•  52% fewer mass shootings

The NRA may be able to bully representatives in the halls of Congress, while Americans bury ever more bodies from gun violence. But they cannot be allowed to bury the truth.

Yes, what they said.