Bloomberg Allies in House Can't Stop Gun-Sales Bill

By BRADLEY HOPE, Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 13, 2007

The campaign begun by Mayor Bloomberg to put an end to legislation that would prevent mayors from receiving federal gun trace data was dealt a blow yesterday when a congressional committee voted against removing the Tiahrt Amendment from an appropriations bill.

The attempt by Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat of Virginia, to kill the amendment was defeated in a voice vote, and a proposal to weaken the amendment's language by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat of Rhode Island, was defeated 40-26.

"Today's vote by the House Appropriations Committee is a profound disappointment," Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. "It shows that Congress is out of step with the bipartisan coalition of mayors, police chiefs, and other Americans from all over the country that united behind a common sense issue."

Even worse for Mr. Bloomberg's battle against illegal guns is a version of the amendment that passed in the Senate Appropriations Committee at the end of June. Aides to Mr. Bloomberg are studying whether a clause that would make the amendment retroactive could, if passed and signed into law, result in the dismissal of lawsuits filed by the city against 27 southern state gun dealers that Mr. Bloomberg alleges have engaged in sales practices that allow guns to end up in the hands of criminals, a spokesman, Jason Post, said.

The appropriations bill will go before the full House in the next week or two, when Mr. Bloomberg's supporters will again attempt to remove the amendment. A final determination about the amendment's eventual passage isn't expected for several months.

"It is another resounding defeat for Mayor Bloomberg," a vice president at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Lawrence Keane, said. The foundation is a trade association for the firearms industry. "Now, Speaker Pelosi will have to decide whether she wants a gun fight on the floor or not," he said.

A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, said the speaker was against the Tiahrt Amendment but had no further comment yesterday.