The Tiahrt Amendment (/ˈtiːhɑːrt/ TEE-hart) is a provision of the U.S. Department of Justice 2003 appropriations bill that prohibits the National Tracing Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from releasing information from its firearms trace database to anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection with a criminal investigation.
[1] Additionally, the law blocks any data legally released from being admissible in civil lawsuits against gun sellers or manufacturers.
For example, the disclosure of trace requests can inadvertently reveal the names of undercover officers or informants, endangering their safety.
It was subsequently broadened in October 2003 with the addition of two provisions banning the ATF from requiring gun dealers to inspect their firearm inventories and requiring the FBI to destroy background check data within 24 hours.
[6] In 2008, the language was altered further, to explicitly allow ATF to publish information about statistical trends in the manufacture, import, export, sales, and criminal use of firearms.