Republicans Concerned ATF Taking 'Giant Leap Toward a Federal Firearm Registry'

[TrappedinCalifornia]

Republicans warn ATF taking 'giant leap toward a federal firearm registry'

A group of House Republicans is warning that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could be laying the groundwork for a backdoor federal gun registry.

Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas led 51 of his colleagues in a letter to acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson on Monday, expressing their concern over a proposed rule by the agency that Republicans fear could eventually lead to a backdoor gun registry around Congress’ prohibition.

The recently-proposed rule essentially removes the 20-year burn date that the federal firearms licensees must abide by, requiring them to preserve firearm purchase records older than two decades...

Here's the letter which begins and concludes by asking several questions...

Congress enacted a prohibition on the creation of a federal gun registry that could allow the government to target American citizens who own guns. We are concerned that this Administration is leveraging its power in a way to establish a federal gun registry. Moreover, we are opposed to a recent proposed regulation that would require federal firearms licensees (FFLs)to facilitate the creation of a federal gun registry.

According to recently published documents, the ATF has collected 54.7 million records in FY2021 alone. It is an outrage that the federal government would maintain such extensive records of law-abiding citizens’ law-abiding firearm transfers...

With that in mind, we have several questions for which we would like written responses:

• How many records does the ATF’s Out-of-Business Records Center (OOB) have in total?
• How many of these records have been processed into a digitalized format?
• How many firearm traces using these records were essential to the successful prosecutionof a violent criminal in the last three years?
• In the case of each successful prosecution of a violent criminal, in what year was theessential firearm transfer record completed?
• 18 U.S. Code § 926 prohibits “any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, orfirearms transactions or dispositions [from] be[ing] established.” Explain in detail how the Out-of-Business Records Center policy combined with proposed rule change in ATF-2021R-05 does not violate the statutory restriction on a federal gun or gun owner registry.

Evidently, this is part of the proposal heavily discussed earlier this year regarding the Definition of “Frame or Receiver” and Identification of Firearms.

• Amend the format for records of manufacture/acquisition and disposition by manufacturers and importers.
• Amend the time period records must be retained at the licensed premises.

[IVC]

Keeping records for prolonged period of time and having to turn them in when an FFL goes out of business provides way more information than the intent of the paperwork. If the window for record keeping is extended, ATF would end up with most of the records and could upload them into a database that is easy to search.

And we know that if there is a database, we are just one Democrat majority from passing some sort of global ban that would use the registry to enforce the ban before it all gets resolved in courts.

We can't get the NY SCOTUS case soon enough. That should put some serious brakes on the Democrats' wet dreams about gun control.

[Oceanbob]

Sadly our privacy has been compromised for many years. With our Alphabet Agencies sharing database computerized private information to OTHER COUNTRIES. When you have legal registered assault weapons that fact shows up on a Police Car scanner and alerts visiting police to be extra careful breaching your house. When you travel to Canada for a skiing holiday and you are barred from the Country because they know you had a DUI back in 1989….Canada and other Countries have access to the United States NCIS computer.
When you approach the immigration and customs counter at the Airport in Taiwan, New Zealand or Bangkok they already know who you are. Once the camera gets your face as you disembark they have access to your identity and your life. In Beijing not so much because while they do facial recognition on their citizens who are caught jaywalking (and are issued a fine and are actually restricted from travel, attending events, shopping, etc. as punishment) we don’t share data (except for Interpol) with the Chinese including the Facebook ban they have and control. Other platforms exist but they are heavily restricted and monitored.
I expect this loss of privacy to get worse; I hope we can nip this in the bud.
Be well
Bob

[Jimi Jah]

ATF and FBI has a dossier on just about every gun owner in this country. They simply don't want to admit it.

Ever wonder why they find people so fast? Remember that AR guy in San Bernardino?

[ja308]

Originally Posted by Jimi Jah

ATF and FBI has a dossier on just about every gun owner in this country. They simply don't want to admit it.

Ever wonder why they find people so fast? Remember that AR guy in San Bernardino?

There are over 90 million gun owners in the USA , so its likely not all have dossier's.
Its likely based on immigration status or place of origin, maybe followed by those who have military experiance and those in younger age groups.

Another trigger point would be those who are registered in screwball 3rd parties, who's popularity never exceeded 4% (libertarian, green, constitution, etc ,etc ) or those who hide or camouflage their political leanings. i.e, Independent.
Registering anything other than Republican is a huge trigger and will bring unwanted attention to the American gun owner.

One will notice it's the Republican Party fighting for our freedom and privacy, which is another reason republicans are protected .

[OCEquestrian]

Wait, you can't mean the "Republicans" who are as bad as the democrats?? The republican RINO's who pass every gun control law they can think up? The Republicans who are so bad that we all should piss away our votes on Libertarians?

[Dan_Eastvale]

Confident 2022 will bring an about face

[DentonandSasquatchShow]

Simple fix, start the process of phasing out the ATF.

[GW]

Hell, didn't Newsom just give every gun owner's info too UC Davis?
Privacy died long ago.

[Jimi Jah]

Originally Posted by ja308

One will notice it's the Republican Party fighting for our freedom and privacy, which is another reason republicans are protected .

Sure, that's why the IRS investigated only republican groups during Obama's reign. Good luck depending on that party to protect you against all the gun laws they passed.

[smle-man]

If you visit this site reguarly, or any similar site, you are on a list already.

[ja308]

Originally Posted by Jimi Jah

Sure, that's why the IRS investigated only republican groups during Obama's reign. Good luck depending on that party to protect you against all the gun laws they passed.

They have protected us for decades!
We would own nothing if not for GOP legislation and auspices.
While it’s true registering Republican, does take courage. It bears remembering this nation was not founded by cowards afraid to stand for principle’s!

[Jimi Jah]

This country was founded by non-partisans. Later Washington warned us about political parties. Washington was right.

[TrappedinCalifornia]

Here's an interesting document. It's an Office of Enforcement Programs and Services (EPS) one-page EPS STATS - FY 2021.

In it, the last part states that the National Tracing Center took in 54.7 million "out-of-business records;" the vast majority being paper as opposed to digital. Ostensibly, the division traces firearms 'recovered' by law enforcement with the idea of producing 'investigative leads.' However, in this ATF brochure, it is noted that the National Tracing Center Division is also responsible for a records repository; including records for FFL's who've gone out of business and that, beginning in 2004, the Division has been accepting 20-year old records in lieu of FFL's destroying them. Also noted is that, since December of 2004, the Division is prohibited from publicly disclosing "any information required to be kept as a record by FFLs or reported to ATF."

Here is a brochure regarding ATF Disclosure of Firearms Trace Data and it refers to the same statute... 18 U.S. Code § 923. In other words, that is not only ATF policy, it is a legal requirement for the agency to not disclose the contents of their records to the 'public.'

So... You can now see where the statistic mentioned in the OP letter came from and why there is concern regarding 'transparency' insofar as the questions being asked...

Congress enacted a prohibition on the creation of a federal gun registry that could allow the government to target American citizens who own guns. We are concerned that this Administration is leveraging its power in a way to establish a federal gun registry. Moreover, we are opposed to a recent proposed regulation that would require federal firearms licensees (FFLs)to facilitate the creation of a federal gun registry.

According to recently published documents, the ATF has collected 54.7 million records in FY2021 alone. It is an outrage that the federal government would maintain such extensive records of law-abiding citizens’ law-abiding firearm transfers...

With that in mind, we have several questions for which we would like written responses:

• How many records does the ATF’s Out-of-Business Records Center (OOB) have in total?
• How many of these records have been processed into a digitalized format?
• How many firearm traces using these records were essential to the successful prosecutionof a violent criminal in the last three years?
• In the case of each successful prosecution of a violent criminal, in what year was the essential firearm transfer record completed?
• 18 U.S. Code § 926 prohibits “any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, orfirearms transactions or dispositions [from] be[ing] established.” Explain in detail how the Out-of-Business Records Center policy combined with proposed rule change in ATF-2021R-05 does not violate the statutory restriction on a federal gun or gun owner registry.

In other words, the concern appears to be that legal requirements regarding disclosure are being used to 'hide' the creation of a 'registry' under the guise of normal operations, where heretofore 'normal operations' would be, under the proposed rule change, made increasingly 'ambiguous' as a result of the new definitions...

...Contrary to ATF’s claims that the NPRM will “clarify” various aspects of federal gun laws, in reality the proposed rule would inject ambiguity after ambiguity into an otherwise unambiguous definition of “firearm,” which has existed unmolested since its enactment over half a century ago. These changes will cause significant problems not only for the law-abiding public and the courts in trying to apply the agency’s intent instead of a statute, but also for the firearms industry...

That official 'comment' also speaks to the the Proposal's "Attempts to Evade the Prohibition on a National Gun Registry."

[M76]

“acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson”

Mr. Richardson is the recipient of numerous Special Act Awards for outstanding service such as the Treasury Department’s Hostile Action Medal for service during the 1993 Branch Davidian conflict in Waco, Texas; and ATF’s Supervisory Employee of the Year Award in 2010 for outstanding leadership contributions

Lord help us