WASHINGTON, D.C.-(Ammoland.com)- In April of 2021 AmmoLand News obtained a leak from the ATF showing that the Bureau was monitoring people’s firearm transactions that MIGHT commit a crime in the future. Using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the ATF kept tabs on over 1,000 American citizens. These law-abiding Americans have not committed any crime and are not under investigation. These are people the ATF or FBI believe are at risk of committing a crime in the future.
Gun rights activists have long worried the government would target law-abiding gun owners using NICS. It worried Gun Owners of America to the point they filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The goal of the FOIA was to determine how many Americans the ATF and FBI are tracking.
“It’s outrageous that our government is spying on law-abiding gun owners, who have committed no crimes,” GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt told AmmoLand News. “Congress needs to rein in the ATF and put a stop to this immediately.” “This is like the movie Minority Report, where the government targets those who might commit a crime. There are multiple problems with what the ATF is doing here, but let me use an analogy that even anti-gun Leftists should comprehend. What would they have said if the Trump administration had spied on illegal aliens who might vote in an election? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would have been calling for impeachment hearings.”
The FOIA found that in May of 2020, the ATF was monitoring the firearms purchases of 525 people using NICS. That number has exploded to 826 individuals as of April 2021. The current trend is to monitor more instead of less law-abiding Americans. If this trend continues the ATF will be monitoring every American who ever legally purchased a firearm using a NICS background check.
The same FOIA also revealed the number of firearms purchases monitored by the FBI dropped in the corresponding period. In May of 2020, the FBI was watching 255 people’s purchases through NICS. That number dropped to 241. The drop can be attributed to the outlier month of June 2020 where the Bureau deleted 35 people from its search. Excluding that one month, the FBI also increased the number of Americans it is monitoring. None of the documents provided in the FOIA explains the drop in people monitored by the FBI for June 2020.
These totals (from May 2020 to April 2021) put the number of law-abiding Americans monitored by the federal government for practicing their Second Amendment right at over 1,000 people. The FOIA did not explain why the FBI and the ATF have chosen to monitor these gun owners. GOA and AmmoLand News both have vowed to keep digging until we uncover the truth.
AmmoLand News has reached out to the FBI and the ATF in an attempt to get clarity on who the people being monitored are and why the government has chosen to watch them. So far, the government has not responded to AmmoLand’s request for comment.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Abolish the unconstitutional ATF.
Looks like the FBI may need to be abolished or slimmed down considerably. I keep hearing how the FBI has time to investigate fake claims against presidents and interfere with parents using free speech against leftist school board members. Must not be much in the way of real crimes to investigate. Actually sounds like they are headed toward becoming the KGB.
And I thought we lived in America, not russia or china or north korea. Wherever I am, when I get back to America I am going to warn them what happened to the British when they tried this kind of crap two centuries ago. Maybe my history is a little bit fuzzy but I thought the British got their ass kicked and America, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, became our own nation where things like illegal search and seizure are illegal. Just another of many reasons why the atfe and the fbi should be arrested, prosecuted and jailed. If someone… Read more »
Excellent reporting. Folks, this is what a rogue federal agency or agent looks like. This is exactly what our Founders warned us of when they talked about the power of the states as independent and sovereign republics to resist rogue federal agents and agencies. They could not have imagined our technology and resources but they certainly did imagine and understand the ability of the corrupt and the power of corruption by power of the state to destroy liberty. There is nothing new under the sun. Our technology simply expands our ability to do evil or good. The choice is yours.
Edward Snowden is a former Booz Allen Hamilton federal contractor employee who disclosed information regarding the NSA’s blanket surveillance of U.S. citizens through a secretive data-mining program that collects the phone records, e-mail exchanges, and Internet histories of hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
they steal our money and call it tax, then they use that money to violte our privacy. I would think such “monitoring” is a constructive SEARCH. For how many of those thosand CITIZENS did they get a warrent, upon probable cause, stating the thing to be found and the place where it is to be found? None.
End BATF. And jail their top brass.
“Do ‘universal background checks’ really work to reduce gun-related crime?”
Never have. That’s not their intended purpose anyhow. Defacto registration.
I’ll bet you won’t find Hunter Biden on the list.
Remember, according to the Biden administration, only the law abiding are the domestic terrorists.
Does anyone really believe that the FBI or BATF is actually doing anything other than making sure they are fully funded for the next fiscal year? Surely we understand that at the Federal level, the safety and security of the American public may not be the last item on their agenda, but it is not far from it. Self preservation, job justification, Congressional funding and career advancement are the ONLY things that actually matter to the membership of these two agencies, and just about all other Federal agencies.
So what’s the problem? Everybody knows all potential or present gun owners are closet criminals. Everybody has something to hide, if you believe Hollywood or any other treasonous gun-grabbing politician.
In fine British fashion, guilty until proven innocent!