A new report from the Washington Free Beacon reveals that President Joe Biden has amassed nearly 55 million records of firearm purchases this year alone.
Gun rights advocates worry these actions are the first steps in a gun registry powered by new regulations that puts more gun owner records in the hands of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (AFT).
An internal ATF document obtained by Gun Owners of America and published by the Washington Free Beacon shows that in fiscal year 2021, the agency obtained 53.8 million paper records and another 887,000 electronic records of firearm purchases from across the country.
These Firearm Transaction Records were sent to the ATF from gun shops that went out of business, and the documents are stored at a housing facility in West Virginia.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 requires gun shops that go out of business to send their paper records to the ATF. The agency scans the records, converts them into images, and stores them electronically. Agency officials maintain that the records are not searchable, as the GCA stipulates.
SEE ALSO: ATF Seize Huge Larry Vickers Gun Collection
The National Shooting Sports Foundation contends that this requirement is outdated and useless.
“NSSF has long maintained that ATF should purge very old records, specifically those older than 20 years just as firearm retailers are authorized to purge those records,” NSSF Public Affairs Director Mark Oliva told GunsAmerica. “It is of no law enforcement value to trace a very old gun to find out that it was sold in 1972 to someone. Most guns used in crimes are stolen or out in the black market. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics proves this.”
Instead of spending millions of dollars every year maintaining 20+-year-old records, Oliva recommends the DOJ spends those millions on actually stopping crime.
The ATF’s National Tracing Center in West Virginia has been a point of controversy for decades. The Atlantic produced a 10-minute mini-documentary in 2019 that aims to highlight the backwardness of America’s gun tracing system.
Instead, the video just proves how real the threat of a gun registry truly is.
SEE ALSO: BREAKING: Biden Nixes Chipman’s Nomination to Head ATF
Agents interviewed for the documentary claim that gun owner information cannot be electronically searched, but do not explain how agents know which electronic files to search if they are asked to trace a “crime gun.”
They also claim that records cannot be searched because each record is converted to a .jpeg file (an image file). But anyone with even a modicum of technical savvy knows that .jpeg text can be searched easily with many common applications. The Atlantic reporters did not ask this simple question—or they did not include the response.
Even if gun owners take the ATF at its word, The Atlantic’s documentary proves that the infrastructure for a national gun registry is ready to go. With a simple act of Congress, all those files could be instantly searchable for any president, attorney general, or federal agent who cares to go looking.
Soon, they’ll likely have even more information to comb through. The ATF is set to hand down two new regulations that will require gun owners to register firearms outfitted with arm braces and undergo background checks for unfinished frames and receivers.
The fact is that not everyone knew about this, this is a public service announcement for new folks. Second, with the underhanded and shady shit the DOJ, Attorney General and FBI are doing what makes you think this isn’t happening. Lastly, you may have gotten rid of guns 20 years ago but you still own guns. A quick federal warrant based on guns from years past, means they can search for guns because they know you are a gun owner in our new future.
Good luck finding all the guns tied to the paperwork on all the guns I sold or that got burned up in my house fire that I had 25 -30 years ago. I can’t even find my invoices for fire tools I’ve sold and expenses. Can’t believe the chore of figuring where all the guns of an entire nation are or went to.??? Where did all the guns go of the people who owned guns then died?
Sold all the guns and have paperwork to prove it.
This is fear mongering, plain and simple. There is nothing new in this information and it is clearly not anything unusual or illegal and certainly NOT the precursor for a registry.
I can’t tell if your comment is sarcasm or not.
If it is sarcasm, then nicely done!
If not then the NFA 1934, FFA 1938, GCA 1968, ACA 1986, UFA 1988, CCA1990, BHVPA and VCCLA 1994, would like to tell you that you are an f’ing idiot!
P.S. this is nowhere even close to a complete list. Fear mongering? You may actually be retarded, and that makes me sad.
F J B !
Boy, that’d be a TURRIBLE place for a fire to break out.
I heard about this a couple days ago and it was disturbing. First off why does the ATF even exist. I looked in the Constitution and couldn’t find it in there. Second what are they even doing with purchase records anyway? It’s none of their business who owns what. We need to take our country back. Before the Wilson administration we didn’t have garbage agencies like ATF, EPA, Departments of Education, Agriculture, Labor, Energy and Homeland Security. This government has gotten 50,000 times bigger than it should be and we need a way to shrink it back to the size it should be and that every thing the federal government does in actually in the U.S. Constitution.
Odd, I find a textual basis for the ATF in the second amendment itself. What part of well-regulated is unclear?
and you think being ruled by a royal family whose only claim to leadership is birth is proper…….I find that odd.
Thanks for the much needed laugh Paul! Trying to educate blue dog is an exercise in futility I’m afraid. How can you teach someone about freedom when they have been born and raised in a social cage??
Naw, man. I could never be a Tory. I respect the institution of the English monarchy, sorta and in an historical context but less so individual kings and queens since Bess (except maybe Victoria?) but the idea of an hereditary nobility is abhorrent to me. And the strongest condemnation of an hereditary nobility is Downton Abbey. In an English setting, I really am a Republican.
And don’t get me started on the House of Stewart.
Nice try, but maybe a better understanding of what “regulated” means, specifically in the context of the 2nd, would correct your understanding.
Regulated here, is similar to “tuned”, as in a well tuned engine.
blue scum dog{he/she] Back when the second amendment was written “well regulated” meant well trained and supplied. Dear God you are a miserable dumb fuck.
Seems to me too many politicians and government officials have forgotten or denying one important fact, they are our EMPLOYEES and not our rulers!
A government that respects and protects its citizens has no need to fear them, a corrupt amoral one that embraces Communism or Socialism defines individuals as an enemy that must be controlled.
In America the Democrats have been overtaken by extreme Leftists and they are a threat to our Republic – VOTE THEM OUT!
Pleas come try. Watch the blood flow.
I read earlier today that so far, 2021 has seen a record number of boating accidents where entire firearms collections were lost.
Someone has shared the gun registration data with Canada. Another interesting fact is that they are allowed to use Voice Stress Analyzers as a quickie lie detector much as General Motors has done on job interviews.
I think it is high time to DEFUND the unconstitutional ATF and establish Sunset Dates for existing gun control laws. Many of those Chicago bargain away.
Where is the term limit bill?
For many decades now, any store that sold a firearm and filled out the 4473, held them in a file at the store until they closed and then they were shipped to the ATF. That German Mauser or M1 Carbine you bought at a Roses back in the 1960’s, the ATF now know about it, but they don’t know what you bought, just that it was a rifle or pistol and its SN. I have seen police detectives come to a gun store and sit looking for sales records for a particular SN. I have bought guns for over 50 years from Western Auto’s, Sears, Mom and Pop gun stores, local department stores, the list goes on. And, I have sold every one of them over the years holding on to a few favorites. So, if the ATF comes to me looking for a particular firearm, chances are I sold it 40 years ago.
One other detail about this. Back during the B.Hussein Obama regime, my good friend and gun store owner, said the ATF came around and collected data on anyone who bought a 7.62 X 39 firearm. I had recently purchased a Tokarev pistol, and years ago, an AK underfolder, (from SOG at a whopping $250) which I sold years ago too. So, even though he is still in biz, they have my data on that caliber of gun ownership, one I own and one I sold.
So they know our names and identifying information; I suspect they have been amassing them since the late 60’s… certainly since background checks became the “law”. What they cannot know, is the lengths We the People will go to in protecting OUR Bill of Rights.
,From 1835 on, Texans have indicated their derision for, and challenge to, such crap –
“COME AND TAKE IT.”
You know what I say? LET’S GO BRANDON!!
Working as a Senior Accountant at a company in CT that owned and operated numerous nursing homes around New England I can say that the government definitely is keeping records of firearm purchases and they are searched.
The company was being investigated for stealing Medicare and medicaid funds do to false information leaked to the media by the then CT Attorney General, now US Senator. The FBI and a Veteran Affairs investigator showed up on my doorstep one evening to question me on what I knew.
Before they left one of them questioned me about the firearms I owned, saying that they don’t look much like recreational firearms. Definitely a fishing expedition. They knew I had firearms and were looking for me to say more.
So they do have access to purchase records whether it be federal or state.
So this is nothing new! Why the big scary headline??
Ask yourself this: Who do you believe, the ATF or the Second Amendment defenders. That is why this is of importance, Tony.
I worked at a gun shop for a little while that closed over 20 yrs ago. All records had to given to the ATF. All I’m saying is this is nothing new. We all knew about this for years!
I’m not registering shit. Register these nuts Joe!
This is nothing new, that FFLs have to surrender their records when they go out of business. It is not that Joe Biden personally (or his handlers) decided to go out and collect 54 million records, that is just what came in as part of the process of going out of business during last year’s COVID recession.
If you are worried about a gun registry, there are also multiple handgun purchase forms and multiple semi-auto long gun forms too.