After learning the true motivation behind “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” several mayors, including those in Idaho Falls, ID, Oldsmans Township, NJ, and Carmel, IN, resigned their membership with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s misguided anti-gun coalition. While these officials deserve to be applauded for disassociating themselves from the coalition, Kansas City, MO, Mayor Mark Funkhouser has signaled that he intends to join Bloomberg’s campaign of misinformation.
In a recent newsletter, Mayor Funkhouser lists an effort to “address the problem of illegal guns” as among his top priorities. Detailing this initiative further, Funkhouser lauds Bloomberg’s coalition for its attempts to compel the federal government to pave the way for big city mayors to launch their own gun-ban schemes. More to the point, Mayor Funkhouser praised Bloomberg’s coalition for its opposition to the Shelby-Tiahrt Amendment – a provision in the U.S. Justice Department’s annual appropriation bill that restricts the release of confidential firearm trace data maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).
Apparently, Mayor Funkhouser has fallen victim to the same rhetoric as other mayors and is blindly following Bloomberg’s condemnation of the Shelby-Tiahrt Amendment. Perhaps, prior to lending their names to such a misguided cause, Mayor Funkhouser and other mayors across the nation should know that the Shelby-Tiahrt Amendment is supported by rank-and-file law enforcement across the country, as well as the National Fraternal Order of Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Department of Justice. These well-respected law enforcement groups and agencies stand behind the Shelby-Tiahrt Amendment as it keeps trace information in the hands of law enforcement for use in a bona fide criminal investigation or prosecution. Conversely, prominent law enforcement officials agree that sharing this information in a civil court could prove dangerous to law enforcement officers, witnesses and informants, and that giving this information to politicians will compromise ongoing investigations and endanger the safety of officers.
Please contact Mayor Mark Funkhouser and encourage him to put sound policy ahead of politics and reconsider his decision to join Mayor Bloomberg’s ill-advised coalition. Our nation’s law enforcement officers deserve real crime fighting tools, not empty rhetoric. You may contact Mayor Funkhouser at:
Mayor Mark Funkhouser
City Hall, 29th Floor
414 E. 12th Street
Kansas City, MO 64106
(816) 513-2500
mayor@kcmo.org
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