ATF’s longstanding policy has been to provide total access to trace results to the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction with respect to the trace request, but to safeguard those results from third parties. Congress’ appropriates restriction simply codifies ATF’s longstanding policy of sharing trace data with other law enforcement agencies for the purpose of conducting a criminal investigation.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
ATF Disclosure of Firearms Trace Data (176.87 KB .PDF on my server)
[I put this on my server for safe keeping and so you can avoid generating web log entries on the ATF website with your IP address. The above quote is for all those anti-gun bigots that claim the ATF policy is hampering “illegal gun” efforts. Mayor Bloomberg, are you listening?–Joe]