“Thanks for the responses. I wasn’t sure if they were the same thing or if the BATF had two bad situations to their credit. :)”
They do have two bad things to their credit. That E Trace thing is pretty scary to. Making gun purchasers soc sec numbers available to corrupt officials in foreign countries isn’t a very good idea either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETrace#Operation_Gunwalker
“Regardless of innocence, first purchaser American gun owner names and addresses, detailed personal information from gun purchases (from form 4473 - including date of birth, possibly Social Security Number), and detail on other guns purchased by owner name is directly available to some 35 foreign governments,[7] including governments with known corruption issues. Trace requests have been accepted by ATF from over 60 foreign governments (some with terrorist connections).[7] ATF admits the identity of the firearms purchaser provided to a foreign law enforcement agency is of particular concern to people, because the purchaser is not necessarily involved in any crime. “
I hadn’t even heard of the E trace thing. Something else to be angry about.
Too many “associations”, “departments”, etc that need to be completely “bulldozed”.
On form 4473, SSAN in “optional”. I have never filled in the blank, FWIW.