“I’m assuming they save every request so they have a de-facto list of gun owners. That pisses me off.”
Me too!
I believe they collect/retain the records of gun dealers going out of business.
They also insist gun dealers retain the records, I believe for twenty years, just in case they can justify collecting the records off the dealers. And they will, someday.
“...I believe they collect/retain the records of gun dealers going out of business.
They also insist gun dealers retain the records, I believe for twenty years, just in case they can justify collecting the records off the dealers. And they will, someday.”
It’s worse than you think.
FFL holders are required to keep the original Forms 4473 for 20 years. But the agency regularly encourages them to keep all that they can, indefinitely.
FFL holders (federally licensed dealers) must keep a logbook of all firearms they receive, recording the person (or dealership, or official agency) the get it from, and the person (agency, company etc) they transfer it to. This information must be kept in a permanently bound book called the acquisition & disposition (A&D) record in the jargon of the trade.
Gunsmiths must be FFL holders and keep the same A&D log, on any firearm left with them for repair. The firearm in question must be returned to the same individual who dropped it off initially; the gunsmith must request prior approval for the disposition from the National Instant Check System before the arm can be transferred to any other party (exempt from NICS in disposition of repaired arms: corporate officers or other approved parties an employees in the case of corporate ownership, or approved government officials in the case of an official agency).
The A&D log must be kept indefinitely. As your second sentence points out, when the FFL holder leaves the trade, all existing records (all A&D logs and surviving Forms 4473) must be sent to the agency records archiving center.
The agency is allowed to descend on any dealership and demand access to A&D records without any advance notice. And agents typically treat the FFL holder as guilty until proven innocent; if the disposition side of the ledger is blank, the FFL holder must prove the arm in question was stolen, destroyed, etc.
Agency scrutiny becomes more intense if any gun sold by the dealer turns up at a crime scene. Stolen arms must be reported to the agency immediately on discovery of the theft; if a blank spot on the distribution side of the ledger is discovered months or years later, suspicion immediately falls on the FFL holder. Excuses such as “Entered in error” or “We forgot to log it out and lost track of the documentation” are treated with extreme disfavor. Worst of all: if a firearm logged out as “Destroyed” turns up at a crime scene.