I forwarded this story to a friend, who in turn forwarded it to friends of his. This is the response he got:
You are naïve if you think the feds do not already track every sale of every firearm through background checks, credit card records, email surveillance and delivery services like ups and fedex from dealers and manufacturers to customers.
They have all the phones of foreign state officials tapped.
We live in a police state.
A friend of mine is a helicopter pilot. He worked for me. After 9-11 the government contacted him to see if he would be willing to pilot helicopters for them if there were further attacks. He said yes. They did a background check on him, gave him a pilots test at the OR Nat Guard in Salem. He had to qualify with a .45. At the time he was in his 40s and was a gun collector. They gave him a lie detector test.
He was shocked at the questions they asked.
They knew everything he ever did I his life. In early adulthood he was a missionary in Alaska running a radio station. They asked about things from that time even he forgot.
Finally they came around to asking him about his gun collections. Again he was shocked at what they knew. This is well over a decade ago, before all the spying on citizens stuff came out. They wanted to know how many guns he owned. He said he had no idea. They wanted to know how many he bought and sold. Same answer, which was true. They asked if it was over 50. He said yes. Over 100? Yes.
This guy is a nobody. He had no criminal record. He is not a political activist. He goes to work during the week and church on Sunday. They knew his whole life story.
When I went to file for Social Security benefits the guy interviewing me pulled me up on the computer and knew every place I ever lived, worked, how much money I made and medical history.
It is amazing what they know. After the tsunami over in the Indian Ocean my mother called the Red Cross to donate. From caller I d they knew her name, p.o. box and street address and who knows what else.