What you don't know ...

Byline: The Register-Guard

With wars and natural disasters dominating the headlines, it's not surprising that most Americans haven't paid much attention to a Republican congressman's successful three-year campaign to keep government information about illegal gun trafficking hidden from the public.

But the gun lobby is paying attention. Now it has instructed its lackeys to pass legislation that would make permanent Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt's preposterous spending bill riders that prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from releasing its gun trace data to anyone except law enforce- ment.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, another of the many gun lobby gophers in Congress, has introduced a bill that raises to the level of lunacy the lengths to which lawmakers will go to shield even crooked gun dealers from police scrutiny. Smith's outlandish bill has 77 co-sponsors and is likely to pass in a Republican-controlled House that is packed with National Rifle Association bobble- heads.

Smith's bill is majestic in its unbridled excess. It would actually leave police officers open to felony prosecution if they shared information on illicit gun dealers with other departments that were not participating in the original investigation.

How stupid is this bill? Let us count the ways. Ever since the ATF began tracing gun sales through the background checks mandated in the Brady Law, it has developed a priceless database of information about where guns used in crimes were originally sold. From that gun trace data, the ATF learned that almost 60 percent of guns used in crimes were sold by just 1 percent of gun dealers.

Through gun trace records, the ATF discovered that Trader Sports in San Leandro, Calif., was the nation's second-largest supplier of guns used in crimes. After a five- year investigation found that the store could not account for 1,723 guns, the ATF revoked its license.

The gun lobby yanked Tiahrt's chain in 2003, and since then the ATF data has been classified and is exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests and civil subpoenas. The data is only available to law enforcement agencies that are conducting a bona fide crime investigation limited to their own jurisdictions. The ATF is forbidden from providing trace data to a third-party police department, even with the permission of the department that requested the data. An officer who provides the data to officers who aren't part of the original investigation could be charged with a felony.

The idiocy of this legislation is staggering. The ability to share investigative intelligence derived from gun trace data is crucial to law enforcement efforts in the nation's largest cities, where most guns used in crimes come from states with less restrictive gun-sale laws.

The congressional robots who vote for this lame bill will be cutting off their own access to the ATF trace data. Not that they let facts get in the way of a favor to the gun lobby.

Even the Justice Department, which under former Attorney General John Ashcroft supported restricting access to gun trace data, warns that new rules in the Smith bill could have a "chilling effect" on law enforcement. The department has recommended removing the restrictions on data-sharing between police jurisdictions.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill that would reverse the most destructive elements of Smith's bill and also would allow the Justice Department to apply the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against gun traffickers. It stands little chance of passing in a Repub- lican-controlled Congress.

That's why this November's midterm elections are so important.