by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY) has introduced S-77, captioned the “Anti-Gun Trafficking Penalties Enhancement Act of 2007,” a measure that directly threatens federal firearms licensees (FFLs) and gun buyers in two important ways. So far Schumer’s bill has no co-sponsors, but has been referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

First, S-77 would require that currently confidential Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records on firearms traces be turned over—on demand—to any government entity, for any purpose. Currently, under the amendment to the ATF’s operating budget authored by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) information from firearms traces can only be used in bona fide criminal investigations by law enforcement agencies.

S-77 would require that these gun trace records be made available to any government agency for any reason, or for no stated reason whatsoever, without any justification or respect for privacy.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun-rights groups have fought for years to maintain the confidentiality of this data and not allow it to be abused by anti-gun politicians. S-77 would reverse those victories.

Anti-gun activists and politicians such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence have sought this confidential data to bolster their lawsuits against the firearms industry. They claim the data will help them prove in court that a tiny percentage of FFLs are responsible for trafficking guns to criminals in states with highly restrictive gun laws. If the ATF data were released they would lead directly to increased levels of harassing lawsuits and more firearms dealers being forced out of business. Gun buyers would find fewer dealers, higher prices and a smaller selection of firearms, the NRA claims.

As damaging as this provision of Schumer’s bill would be to firearms dealers, another provision could do even more harm. S-77 would unleash the federal government to harass FFL holders at will on fishing expeditions, for any reason, as often as it chooses.

S-77 would remove the restriction on ATF that allows it only one regulatory inspection of dealers per year, and instead grant unlimited authority to go after dealers without need to show cause. This change is completely unnecessary. ATF already has significant legal methods for regulating dealers and enforcing firearm transfer laws. Finally, and perhaps most ominously, the NRA explains, S-77 would define certain already-illegal firearm transactions as “racketeering activity” under the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” (RICO) statute.

Under RICO, if a person commits two or more acts of “racketeering activity” within 10 years, that “pattern of racketeering activity” can subject the violator to an additional 20-year prison term and seizure of assets, on top of current sentences for the actual firearm violations. Finally, and perhaps even more disturbing, anyone “injured” by a “pattern of racketeering activity” can bring a civil suit to “recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit.”