Posted on 03/25/2013 6:59:32 PM PDT by frankenMonkey
So, are "Background Checks" really "Gun Owner Registrations"
When you buy a firearm from a dealer, you submit to a background check, officially known as the The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 and launched by the FBI on November 30, 1998, NICS is used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to immediately determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms or explosives.(1)
Like many of you, I was under the impression that NICS checks were not kept as permanent records. Federal law specifically prohibits using NICS data to create any system of registration of firearms or firearm owners. Per the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28: "Limitation on use. The NICS, including the NICS Audit Log, may not be used by any Department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to establish any system for the registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions or dispositions, except with respect to persons prohibited from receiving a firearm by 18 U.S.C. 922(g) or (n) or by state law. The NICS Audit Log will be monitored and reviewed on a regular basis to detect any possible misuse of NICS data."(2)
Indeed, NICS checks are to be destroyed within 24 hours: "In cases of NICS Audit Log records relating to allowed transactions, all identifying information submitted by or on behalf of the transferee will be destroyed within 24 hours after the FFL receives communication of the determination that the transfer may proceed. All other information, except the NTN and date, will be destroyed after not more than 90 days from the date of inquiry."(3)
In a momentary lack of judgment, I found myself watching NBC's Dateline report on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' from Sunday, March 24th, specifically about Jason Derek Brown. While watching, the FBI agent tracking Brown stated that he ran a check on recent gun purchases, and got a hit on Brown.
"We got the name of Jason Brown, and started looking at everything. We ran, with the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, we ran and compared databases with gun purchases by him, and that pinged on the recent purchase in Salt Lake City" stated FBI agent Lance Leising.
The NBC narrator concludes with "ATF records indicated that a Jason Brown bought a handgun just a few weeks earlier in Utah." According to the Deseret News, "Before the shooting, Brown was in Utah, planning the crime, according to the FBI. He passed a background check and bought a .45 caliber handgun at a gun store in Kearns."
So, what database(s) did the FBI ping?
Inquiring minds want to know...
1. National Instant Criminal Background Check, http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics
2. 28 C.F.R. § 25.9(b)(3), http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/25-9-retention-destruction-records-19676573
3. 28 C.F.R. § 25.9(b)(1)(iii), http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/25-9-retention-destruction-records-19676573
4. Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366672/FBI-still-watching-for-one-of-its-most-wanted-in-Utah.html
Are all dogs wolves?
As we all recall, it was only days ago a CIA fellow was saying the power fulcrum had changed and the future of power was in information control and the US government OWNED that playing field.
Information is power. The government has it. We better do all we can to have a benign and responsive limited government.
They keep EVERYTHING.
I don’t trust these mother f**kers one bit. This so called government is rotten from head to toe. They will push too far, there will be a straw that breaks the camels back.
What’s next? Background checks before you are allowed to express an opinion on a chat site?
Does Pinochio have a wooden johnson?
it’s been rotten for a long time.
I think the Dems already do that on their liberal sites.
yikes .. there’s some serious chafing !
Thanks for this post. I believed this all along.
Do you really think a government agency would willingly obey any law?
I did not beat it to death, but I have asked two local gun dealers within the past 30 days how long they keep the paper and they said forever.
One said that if they ever came around to take our guns, he would burn it.
I hope some gun dealer will post here what the ATF is requiring today.
I would bet that like the IRS, they make their own rules as they go along.
Sales records are a different animal.
They are kept by the FFL permanently, I believe.
I’ll look it up and post the info.
Well, as far as I know the dated NTN records are kept forever and the FFL keeps the original 4473 form, so the transaction information is all out there. My FFL dealer told me that his 4473 forms and sales records are checked regularly for gun ownership.
Sales Records: FFLs are required to maintain records of the acquisition and sale of firearms indefinitely.
The dealer must record, “in bound form,” the purchase or other acquisition of a firearm not later than the close of the next business day following the purchase or acquisition.
The dealer must similarly record the sale or other disposition of a firearm not later than seven days following the date of such transaction and retain Form 4473, the Firearms Transaction Record.
When a firearms business is discontinued, these records are delivered to the successor or, if none exists, to the Attorney General.
With very limited exceptions, records of firearm sales are not maintained at the federal level. The National Firearms Act Branch of ATF does maintain a limited registry of machine guns, short-barreled shotguns or rifles, and silencers, known as the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
OK, so bottom line.
The feds do not keep records on all of our purchases.
But by requiring the dealer to keep his records forever, the information is there for the feds any time they want it.
The feds are getting what they want through the back door, thus avoiding the restrictions congress put on them.
When I bought a couple of AR complete lowers last year, since one was to be a dedicated AR15 pistol, that had to be registered as such not just a serial number read off.
You are correct.
I never really thought it through.
Seems like the FFL’s might have to start having mysterious break-ins and wastebasket fires...
At FR, you cannot post a thread about the towers and 911 unless it meets the government official story. Is that censorship?
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