NYC Pussy Mayor Bloomie's Allies in House Can't Stop Gun-Sales Bill

July 17, 2007

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

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.

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