As you may have heard, last year the FBI issued more than 4000 requests to the BATFE to seize guns from prohibited buyers. The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is supposedly an instant background check for people trying to purchase firearms and the information is supposed to be deleted upon an successful check.
But thanks to Obama being the firearm salesmen of the year, many times the system was overwhelmed and could not process all the background checks “instantly.” Federal law mandates that if a check cannot go through within a 72 hour period the sale must go forward for a right delayed is a right denied.
This is where things get interesting.
If the check eventual goes through when the FBI has time to get around to it and the gun purchaser is a felon, has a history of mental disease or is in some other way should have been denied in the first place, the AFF goes out and confiscates the guns.
Now, whatever you may think of NICS, and yes we don’t want criminals to have guns, do you support a national registration of law abiding citizens because the question remains, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
For those not familiar with the Latin, the question is who guards the guards themselves?
The information is SUPPOSED to be destroyed upon completion…but who is really checking in on the FBI to make sure that is happening?
Some may say, well you should trust that they are doing the right thing? I’ll pass.
In my home state of Pennsylvania the law specifically prevents any provision of its law from allowing any government or law enforcement agency to create a registry of firearm ownership
HOWEVER, the State Police also maintain a database of all handgun sales in the state which the PA Supreme Court has interpreted as not being a registration database because it doesn’t contain ALL guns, just handguns.
That kind of spine contorting legal acrobatics leaves a very sour taste in my mouth when it comes to the “just trust us” notion of dealing with the government and the deep state in particular.
And that is just the NICS check we are hoping gets deleted after a “relatively short time period.” There is also the fact that the FFL dealer who sells you your firearm is required to keep that information for TWENTY YEARS and should they go out of business before that time, all their information about you goes to the ATF. Now, the ATF will keep the records but claims it does not centralize or aggregate them, nor does it maintain a registry.
Let that sink in for a second. The ATF doesn’t consider having all your information about the guns you own a registry because they are disorganized.
I may have a bunch of receipts strewn around the house but if I need to get one to make a return, guess what…it’s there. Much like the ATF’s disorganized registry is there, should they ever wish to come and seize your firearms.
Which, coming full circle, is exactly what they did to the people who were allowed to obtain firearms when the NICS system couldn’t handle their requests.
Yes, it’s easy to say that they were criminals and shouldn’t have had guns in the first place so confiscating them isn’t a big deal. I’m not even going to argue the counterpoint. My point is that the information exists that is so readily available to the FBI and the ATF that should the order ever come down, confiscating the firearms of law abiding citizens will not be any more difficult…outside of you know, cold dead hand stuff.
Again, not arguing that felons should have guns here…just pointing out that today its felons…tomorrow it could be you. They have the information and no one is keeping tabs on those who keep tabs.
Related articles
The post NICS Confiscation Chilling Reminder of the Power of Information and Perils of Registry appeared first on Bullets First.
