A key Congressional committee dealt a major blow to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s campaign against illegal firearms yesterday, refusing to allow police departments broader access to data that tracks guns sales.
The bill restricting release of the information, approved by the House Appropriations Committee, must still be passed by the full House and reconciled with a similar Senate measure. But since the Senate bill is considered even more beneficial to the gun industry, the Bloomberg administration appeared resigned to defeat.
Note Paul Helmke's "I'll be back" threat. I half expect him to twirl his moustache and go "Nya-ha-ha" while saying it.
So since the antis are pushing it as tying law enforcements hands, how about next time put in a provision that allows police to get aggregate data, but makes it a felony for anyone other than a sworn LEO to receive the data, and also make it a felony to use it for anything other than a criminal investigation (thus thwarting Mayor Mike's claim that he is the senior LEO in the city).
ReplyDeleteOf course, given the complete lack of action on the part any US Attorney when the mayor of New York acted in a textbook RICO fashion, conspiring to send his minions across state lines to perform illegal acts, I am probably being hopelessly naive and idealistic to think that such a provision would actually be enforced, but can't a fellow nurse some small modicum of hope?