Lamar Smith Wants to Gag Your Police Dept

Unbelievable as this is, according to the Ft Morgan Times , Lamar Smith is the chief sponsor of a bill that will prevent gun trace information from being shared.

While it's probably aimed at studies showing the effects of current lax enforcement of gun laws there are some additional consequences:

The proposal also handicaps law enforcement by putting blinders on the police. It would keep the police from seeing a big picture that gun trace information may paint. Police would only be allowed to view the information that relates to their own jurisdiction, as if crime stopped at city borders. Worse, cops who violated that ban could be subject to prosecution. That's crazy.

Oh, and the bill hampers law enforcement in another way -- eliminating a current requirement that dealers alert authorities when they sell more than two guns in five days to the same person. The purpose is to check whether buyers are gun traffickers, from whom outlaws often purchase guns. This provision handcuffs the police and aids criminals.

This is an editorial piece, and doesn't include the bill number. If any of you all know more about it, I'd love to have a look at it. Use the comments, or email me at TX21blog using gmail's domain.

(This is a reprinted from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I've linked both sources, since the FMT is where I found it.)