Fighting gun violence requires knowing all the facts, including the source of guns | STAFF COMMENTARY
For the first time in nine years, Baltimore is on track to see annual homicides fall below the 300 mark in 2023, yet shootings remain a near-daily occurrence. During the first week of December, for example, gun violence took the lives of five men ranging in age from 17 to 69 years old. Three were Black, one was white and one was Hispanic. We know where and when these homicides were committed. Experts can even tell you the caliber of the bullets used. But here’s something that top elected officials — the people who are expected to set policies to counter this gun violence — can’t know for sure. They are legally prevented from being informed where the guns used to commit these terrible crimes were purchased.
Even if the actual firearm is in custody, a suspect arrested, perhaps even a confession in hand, the federal agency responsible for regulating firearms — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — will not reveal to Mayor Brandon Scott or members of the Baltimore City Council (or Gov. Wes Moore and members of the Maryland General Assembly, for that matter) the histories of guns used in crimes.
Mayor Scott says this is a problem if Baltimore is to further develop a data-driven approach to fighting gun violence. And last month, he joined Everytown Law, the litigation arm of the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, and the legal firm of Kramer Levin in filing a lawsuit against the ATF to obtain the sources of guns used in crimes in the city. The ATF has refused to supply this information despite the city’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, claiming to hand it over would be a violation of the Tiahrt Rider, a provision of a 2003 federal appropriation bill that prohibits the ATF from releasing gun trace data to anyone other than a law enforcement agency. The law has long had strong backing from the National Rifle Association, which fears the release of data could lead to a rash of lawsuits against individual gun dealers.
It’s easy to get lost in the weeds here over gun trace data and the potential civil lawsuits, so let’s keep it simple. Shouldn’t the people who write laws — indeed, shouldn’t every American — know where guns used in crimes are coming from? What if it’s from a relative handful of outlets? What if it’s certain states or specific regions? And what if there are opportunities to address these patterns through policy or enforcement to at least make it more difficult for individuals to acquire weapons of mass destruction? Why protect gun dealers who may routinely facilitate purchases by criminals?
We can argue all sorts of law enforcement policies from the proper expectations of police to the severity of punishments, but it’s essential that we have all the facts so that we can examine these matters appropriately. Whether the ATF is providing an overly broad interpretation of Tiahrt or Congress needs to amend it, the mayor (who also happens to co-chair Mayors Against Illegal Guns) has an important point. The stakes are far too high to worry about whether the people providing firearms to criminals will be publicly identified. Shouldn’t they be? A restaurant violates a health ordinance and it may itself be closed by authorities with that fact broadcast to the world and the owner can be sued. If a gun store isn’t following proper procedures for background checks, isn’t that worthy of similar public scrutiny?
We don’t know that this lawsuit will succeed. We strongly suspect the Biden administration is sympathetic to its aims. Federal appeals courts have produced mixed opinions on past claims. But at the very least, it would be wrong for the mayor of a city that still sees so many homicides each year to do nothing about this gaping hole in the gun violence knowledge base. Would we ignore how other factors influence gun violence — from development issues to juvenile offenses to exposure to violence and aggressive behavior to school and peer influences, to poverty and poor health care? The more we know, the more we can prevent these circumstances. Efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals should not be so controversial.
In the matter of the Mayor of Baltimore v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, we side with the plaintiff. We hope the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will do the same.
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.