WASHINGTON -- For five years, the National Rifle Association and its allies have successfully lobbied Congress to limit the ability of local police to access federal gun trace data. Now, by moving to remove those limits and increase the ability of local officers to track so-called crime guns, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski is venturing into what is rapidly emerging as the latest battlefield in the war over gun rights.
A provision first approved in 2003, when Republicans controlled Congress, sets tight controls on how the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may share its gun data with local police departments. But with Democrats in charge, that law has become the target of an aggressive new campaign by gun control activists, who aim to kill it.
The effort puts the Maryland Democrat at the center of a high-profile gun control fight for the first time in her 20-year Senate career, just as the gun debate is evolving away from ownership rights and toward public safety concerns.
Groups such as New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's new Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and other law enforcement organizations say the 2003 restrictions make it harder for local police to track the flow of illegal firearms through their communities.
"One of the lessons that we learned after 9/11 was that you need police officers to be able to connect the dots," said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg's criminal justice coordinator. "You need people to be able to share information."
But the Bush administration, the National Rifle Association, the National Fraternal Order of Police and other supporters of the current law contend that making the gun data more widely available could jeopardize investigations and endanger police.
"You can find Web sites now that show pictures and information about police informants," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, the Kansas Republican who introduced the restrictions in 2003. "If the mayors are successful, there will be other Web sites about undercover officers."
Breaking the barrier
Enter Mikulski, now preparing to shepherd through her first spending bill as the new chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. She has removed the provision from the legislation, which is to be debated tomorrow by her panel.
