Bloomberg differ with Rudy regarding gun suit

Bloomberg Begs to Differ With Giuliani on Gun Suit By DIANE CARDWELL Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took a rare, veiled swipe at his predecessor yesterday, challenging Rudolph W. Giuliani’s assertion that a lawsuit Mr. Giuliani filed as mayor against gun manufacturers had changed so much that he may no longer support it. Saying that the case had “not changed at all” since its inception, Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at a news conference at City Hall, “We believe that it’s a good case, and we hope to win it.” Last week, Mr. Giuliani, a Republican candidate for president, told the National Rifle Association that the suit had “taken several turns and several twists that I don’t agree with.” Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani’s campaign, declined to comment on the disagreement. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2000, sought tens of millions of dollars from more than a dozen gun companies, arguing that firearms makers and distributors failed to monitor retail dealers closely enough and allowed guns to end up in the hands of criminals. Temporarily shelved after the Sept. 11 attack, the case is still winding through the legal process. Although Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Giuliani have generally avoided public spats over the years, they have been finding themselves on opposite sides of the gun issue as Mr. Giuliani has sought to appeal to more conservative Republican voters. The two men also disagree on legislation known as the Tiahrt amendment, a rider that has been attached to federal spending bills since 2003. The amendment places restrictions on the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to release information about the sales histories of guns recovered in crimes to people other than law enforcement officials investigating those crimes. The rider, named for Representative Todd Tiahrt, the Republican from Kansas who introduced it, is intended to keep trace data, which shows the path from manufacturer to retail purchase of a gun recovered in a crime, from being used in civil suits against gun dealers and manufacturers. But some law enforcement officials, including Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, say that without access to aggregate information about the source of guns, it is difficult to see larger patterns in how firearms move to their communities. Mr. Giuliani, speaking to the N.R.A., said he thought the rule was sensible, while Mr. Bloomberg has made its elimination a focus of his national campaign against illegal gun trafficking. Although that effort was dealt a severe blow earlier this year when a key Congressional committee approved the restrictions, Mr. Bloomberg praised the bureau for recently releasing a report tracking gun recoveries state by state for the first time in several years. “I was pleased to see the alcohol, tobacco and firearms division, after what they said was overwhelming demand from around the country, starting to give out more information, probably in violation of the Tiahrt amendment,” Mr. Bloomberg said. A.T.F. officials declined to comment for this article, but they have said that the Tiahrt amendment does not restrict the release of the aggregate statistics they reported, which show, for instance, the kinds of crimes in which guns are recovered and the areas they most frequently come from, but not information about specific dealers.