Todd Tiahrt

William Todd Tiahrt (born June 15, 1951) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for KS's 4th congressional district from 1995 to 2011.

He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Evangel College in 1975, and received a M.B.A. from Southwest Missouri State University in 1989.

He was a teacher at Kansas Newman College and Evangel College and worked for Boeing as a proposal manager.

One factor in the win was the 1990s reapportionment, in which Hutchinson and surrounding Reno County were shifted to the "Big 1st" District.

Hutchinson was replaced with more reliably Republican Montgomery County.

Tiahrt was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 1992.

A member of the Republican Party, he was elected as part of the historic Republican Wave of 1994, defeating 18-year incumbent U.S. Representative Dan Glickman.

After only one term, in 1994, he won the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District and was elected in an upset over 18-year Democratic incumbent Dan Glickman.

Over 1,800 people volunteered for Tiahrt's campaign which spent only $200,000, less than a quarter of Glickman's expenditures.

Schlapp began his political career as a campaign volunteer for Tiahrt in 1994 and following Tiahrt's election in November 1994, Schlapp moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as Tiahrt's communications director and eventually chief of staff for five years.

After a tough reelection bid in 1996, Tiahrt was reelected to the U.S. House six more times with little difficulty, before his unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2010.

In November 1997, Tiahrt was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.

The resolution did not specify any charges or allegations.

This was an early effort to impeach Clinton, predating the eruption of the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

The eruption of that scandal would ultimately lead to a more serious effort to impeach Clinton in 1998.

On October 8, 1998, Tiahrt voted in favor of legislation that was passed to open an impeachment inquiry.

On December 19, 1998, Tiahrt voted in favor of all four proposed articles of impeachment against Clinton (only two of which received the needed majority of votes to be adopted).

Tiahrt is the author of the Tiahrt Amendment which 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.

This precludes gun trace data from being used in academic research of gun use in crime.

Additionally, the law blocks any data legally released from being admissible in civil lawsuits against gun sellers or manufacturers.

Some groups, including the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, believe that having further access to the ATF database would help municipal police departments track down sellers of illegal guns and curb crime.

These groups are trying to undo the Tiahrt Amendment.

Numerous police organizations oppose the Tiahrt Amendment, such as the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

Conversely, the Tiahrt Amendment is supported by the National Rifle Association, and the Fraternal Order of Police (although it allows municipal police departments only limited access to ATF trace data in any criminal investigation).

The NRA has claimed that undoing the Tiahrt Amendment would lead to a rash of lawsuits against gun dealers.

This included "critical pro-gun reforms" like the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA); "legislation to expand Right-to-Carry to national parks and wildlife refuges", the Tiahrt Amendment to reform the ATF, and "legislation to restore" Second Amendment rights to Washington, DC.

The A+ ranking took into consideration the letter he submitted to court briefs that he signed as a "critical friend of the court briefs" in the 2008 landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home, and that Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and requirement that lawfully-owned rifles and shotguns be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock" violated this guarantee.

He ran in 2010 for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback.

He lost to fellow Republican U.S. Representative Jerry Moran of Hays, Kansas, 50%–45%.

Tiahrt twice sought to regain the 4th District House seat, representing a district which encompasses eleven counties in the south central region of the state, including the City of Wichita.

In their 2010 letter of appreciation on behalf of the NRA Political Victory Fund and the 50,000 NRA members in Kansas, Tiahrt was honored with a 4th consecutive congressional race A+ NRA rating for his contributions to the pro-gun efforts.

Tiahrt had earned the highest rating, by "voting for every pro-gun bill."

and the 2010 SC case McDonald v. Chicago which found that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against the states, clearing up any uncertainty left in the wake of the Heller case.

A bill was introduced by Tiahrt and Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) called the Fairness for American Students Act that would close a loophole in current law that several states have used to provide lower-cost college tuition to illegal immigrants compared to tuition rates U.S. citizens from neighboring states have to pay.

Kansas and Nebraska are two of the states that currently offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

Matt Schlapp is chairman of the American Conservative Union and a Fox News political commentator.

In 2014, he ran against incumbent Mike Pompeo in the Republican primary but was defeated.

Then, in 2017, after Pompeo vacated the seat to become President Donald Trump's CIA Director, Tiahrt sought the Republican nomination for the special election to fill it, but came in third, losing to Kansas state treasurer Ron Estes.

Tiahrt was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, the son of Marcine (née Steele) and Wilbur E. Tiahrt.

He attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where he played football as a running back.