ATF Admits to secret database of almost a billion gun owners
(www.zerohedge.com)
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When a gun store goes out of business, its records are shipped to the Feds. They are supposed to store the paper copies only. But, our ATF scanned and OCRed them to make them searchable. Thus, they now have a partial database.
This is, of course, illegal. Gun owner registries are prohibited by the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1985.
Note, that law was a horse trade at the best, a shit deal at worst, because it also banned Tax Stamps for new machine guns, essentially regulating them to prohibitively high prices, although it did have some good reforms of the original (and terrible) Gun Control Act of 1968.
Lastly, if the feds wanted a gun owner database, they just talk to the credit card companies and get a list of anyone who's ever bought firearms or related material. The only people THAT would exclude would be those who inherited them, or paid cash for everything, two very small categories.
It's to bad for me, though, that I lost my guns is a tragic boating accident a few years ago.
Another database that I am on.
I know, but pointing out something is illegal, according to the black and white letter of the law, precludes a lot of debate.
Pointing out it is illegal, is also a way of bitching about the jack booted Nazi thugs at the ATF.
I know there are actual Nazis on Consumeproduct who make their way here, but I was referencing a 1990s controversy when the NRA called the ATF "jack booted Nazi thugs" (which they are) and President HW Bush resigned in protest.