Washington, DC – -(Ammoland.com)- In the April 11th, 2022, White House Press Release titled FACT SHEET: The Biden Administration Cracks Down on Ghost Guns, I noticed an interesting tidbit.
Sure, the release contained copious amounts of nonsense, drivel, and flawed precepts, as we’ve long since departed with the truth these days. However, there was a nugget contained deep within the document I found thought-provoking. Here is the subject matter:
Previously, these dealers were permitted to destroy most records after 20 years, making it harder for law enforcement to trace firearms found at crime scenes. According to ATF’s National Tracing Center, on average more than 1,300 firearms a year are untraceable because the federally licensed firearms dealer destroyed the relevant records that were more than 20 years old.
I enjoyed a sip of Balvenie 21-Year Portwood Scotch just a few weeks ago with a friend I hadn’t seen in years. That particular length of age didn’t ring a bell with me then, but it holds a bit more significance now. More on that later… I believe any good strata of information is based on the proverbial premise and conclusion discernment method. My pseudo-intellectual buddies might refer to this as the Socratic Method. So, here’s what I’m wondering.
ATF currently (the new Biden rules take 120 days to go into effect) requires FFLs to keep all the 4473 forms and supporting documents for no less than 20 years, correct? Yes.
I’m firmly opposed, as are you, to any backdoor, front door, and side door gun registration scheme, correct? Yes.
Assuming those two things to be true, should a liberty-loving FFL keep records beyond 20 years in good faith, knowing ATF will use them to register their customers and their lawfully obtained belongings, all while knowing the dealer requirements to keep the documents cease beyond 20 years? A hint could be offered as to the answer, but you and I both know this is rhetorical.
Our sage and astute President has just told all patriotic FFLs we should have been burning every shred of documentation older than 20 years whether he realized it or not. Sounds like a massive house cleaning is on order for American gun shops.
We know ATF is “maintaining” truckloads of documentation, as they’ve admitted it freely. Sure, they play footsie with the words they use, but when a government entity segregates and categorizes records in a searchable format, it is called a registry by the common folk. Maybe my 21 Year Scotch and my 21 Year 4473s both aged well and I hadn’t even realized it. Life is funny like that I guess.
If the question is, “How should the customer-loving and law-abiding FFLs have spent their Fridays?” The answer should become, “Holding customer appreciation wiener roasts over the orange glow of 21yr aged 4473 embers…”
What do you think of this suggestion? Let us know in the comments below and share this page with your local FFL or gun shop.
About Michael Ware:
Michael is a Christian husband and father to two children. He owns and operates Controlled Chaos Arms, a premier custom weapons shop in the Midwest. He serves as Chairman of the board of Directors at the Iowa Firearms Coalition. The pursuit of truth drives him in research and his writing.
Michael enjoys shooting, hunting, and fishing throughout the Midwest and Rockies. An avid outdoorsman and tireless supporter of all Second Amendment virtues, he can be found in his gun shop, in a tree stand with his kids, or on Capitol Hill lobbying in support of Freedom and Liberty at any given time.
AMEN, EXACTLY RIGHT. Every Constitution loving FFL should be destroying any records not CURRENTLY mandated to keep >20 years old, and should be doing so RIGHT NOW
20+ years= shred and burn.
As for the rest, accidents happen. Water damage is a terrible thing. Make sure you check those leaky faucets and whatnot.
At some point we are going to have to make the choice the pot heads and those who want to flood us with foreign nationals made; to ignore the laws that we do not agree with. This burden must be born by FFLs just as much as by those of us individuals with a bump stock, 80% build kit, or pistol brace. FFLs should be organizing protests during which many FFLs burn ALL their 4473s together. And we should all be at those protests with our forbidden items to support them. As some famous guy once said “We all must… Read more »
I see your point. If one is going to make that decision, then remember to destroy evidence, have a cover story, or best of all , … remain anonymous.
The Biden crime family should be run out of the country
No, they should be arrested, charged, tried, incarcerated for life and remembered by history as the disgusting traitors they are.
Naaaa…to easy and costly for “us”. This is what he deserves.
Yes, proper arrest, proper charges, proper trial … that is all fine as long as they die in their homeland, peacefully, at the end of a rope… in rags.
I agreed with Cooter until I read your answer. I like yours better. If we ran them out of the country, they would probably go to one of their hidden hide outs where everything is in place for them like in China and Ukraine and Iran and Pakistan.
OreGONEISTAN
Why stop there , 20 day old 4473 toast it ! It’s none of the ATFs buisness as it’s a right not a privilege !
Biden does not make laws his title as president is sign new laws that have been approved through congress and the senate. Never trust what Joe Biden has to say for 49 years he has been wrong on everything he has said or done. This administration has proven that it makes bad choices when it comes to protecting all Americans. How can you trust a President that left Americans behind in Afghanistan. In this act leaving military weapons behind Biden and his administration committed treason arming the enemy. Marine Gen McKenzie head of the US central command needs to be… Read more »
There is one reason and one reason only that they want guns banned. Because TYRANTS usually have them turned on them when the people are no longer willing to suffer evil. They are SCARED because they might meet a tyrants fate. And all those little tyrants at the gooberment agencies are scared too. ATF tyrants are scared. They want to get through their “profession” and on to their lucrative pensions in one piece. Too bad if they keep it up that just might not happen. As for “gun violence”? I have yet in all of my gun owning years had… Read more »
Maybe what they all should do is have a burglary where all the records are destroyed. Hint, hint…
I had a mouse get in my car and make a mess out of my old service records. FFL Dealers need to be careful about storing records in proper locations.
Damn shame if there was an accidental fire or flood, robbery etc
We need to develope a culture of common, ubiquitous gun store fires; sort of like all the courthouse fires from mid 19th Centuty to mid 20th Century.
Yes, even the Army records depot in St. Louis is famous for having a fire and losing the records of many WWI and WWII vets! Government leading the way!
I like the “mice solution”. Old mouse shit turns into dust, which if properly stored is nearly as infectious as what one finds in an anthrax mailer.
Wear a respirator while collecting the boxes of shredded records, seal them up and send to ATF. Let them feel the love while they are attempt to reconstruct the papers.
illegal under FOPA
Why would Biden’s handlers want FFL dealers to burn 20+ year old records?
So they can be charged later implicated in a loophole that I am still looking for at this time. Anybody want to help???
Ya mean that if an FFL destroyed his 20+ year old records, the government will arrest and charge him, later, for following their orders? That is pure entrapment.
See my comment above, re: no 4473s, no citizen proof of legal purchase/possession.
Biden (really, his handlers) and the ATF do NOT want FFLs to burn 20+ year old records. It’s that until 120 days from now, they cannot stop them from burning those old records, per existing law.
The implications of ATF “importing” all those records is frightening. The chess pieces are being positioned to support future confiscation.
Ahh, I see now.
It’s been decades “illegal” or unconstitutional stopped ATFBI & other Oathbreakers. Zero accountability.
Dunce cap downvotes = Over The Target. “Good cops” who cover for Oathbreakers own their evil.
A down vote is a choice. Many chose to stand up to you because of your inane, boring, routine insults. Oh and most people shoot at the target, not over the target.
None of which you can produce. “Many” of your sock puppets. Nice try, Oathbreaker.
And the dog! Don’t forget the family pet.
The AFT still cannot name a single violent criminal that was convicted because of a gun trace so that cannot be the (honest) reason for wanting all the records. But we knew that already. So yeah, any FFL that has been in business for more than 20 years should destroy any record more than an hour older than 20 years. Nothing would make the Biden administration happier than to close every FFL in the country because they all destroyed recent 4473s so doing so would be a bad idea. Some things only feel good in the moment.
Burn them all. FJB/FKH
Oh … records. At first, I thought that you meant the bidens!
This morning’s laugh. Thanks.
How about the states that have warehouses full of barrels of spent brass that was cataloged so they can trace the spent casing to a law abiding citizen?
Don’t know about you and your friends, but groups have “sold”, “traded,” “gifted” every gun ever purchased on a 4473 for guns not linked to their own names on 4473s. Just seemed like the prudent American thing to do. Get ’em while they’re hot, your name on a 4473 NOT!!!! Joe Bob now has Billy Rob’s 4473 ARs, Cletus has Armands Glocks. Armand has Cletus’s 1911s. Vice versa and verse vicea. Let’s see Sniffy Joey’s ATF trace those trails. Even our best coon dogs couldn’t follow those trails. Hit it , Boys!!! You pass it to the right. Pass it… Read more »
I am totally against the government of having any record of what firearm people may own but with the current firearms laws what you have mentioned will possibly get those fellows in more trouble than if the firearm was registered in their name. For starters, if an LEO finds you have a firearm in somebody’s name that is different from yours, you are going to lose the firearm on the spot. An arrest is also a possibility.
I am alway careful to get a receipt or bill of sale. Have not seen your post in a while … good to see you back!
Most states don’t have registration schemes, so having a gun that is registered to another person is not a problem, since the firearm hasn’t been registered in the first place. An arrest might be made for the fact you were in possession of a firearm, registered or not, depending on circumstances.
If I was in legal custody of a firearm and was arrested in a state not requiring registration, I would certainly pursue a civil suit for wrongful arrest and perhaps denial of civil rights.
What on earth are you talking about? LEOs neither care nor have any readily available way of knowing whose name was on which 4473, what time of easily a dozen or more times a firearm changes hands, or if the gun changed hands a dozen times after the only, orifinal 4473, if it was after ’68 and there was one. No crime there.
Also, it occurs to me that Biden wanting the 4473s destroyed is a trap. Once they are no longer in existence (other than on ATF& FBI computers), how do we prove we legally acquired any or all of our firearms, when The Biden/Obama admin creates an Executive Order – or a Dem Congress passes a law – stating all guns that we can’t prove we purchased “legally” (and private sales won’t be allowed to count, of course) will be confiscated?
You know damned well they have some plan like that up their sleeves.
Possession is nine tenths of the law.
I’m surprised at how gullible many of those commenting are, to think that the ATF hasn’t already copied all – or nearly all – of the 4473s that exist. They have been copying them for years now. I’ve had friends who are FFLs (at gun shops, not home dealers) who have told me they were threatened and folded rather than go out of business _and_ get prosecuted for small bookkeeping errors. I don’t know if they have gotten them all or not, but I would bet the biggest dealers (like Dick’s, perhaps? Maybe Cabelas, Walmart, etc.?) dealers have already given… Read more »
How gullible to assume ATFBI isn’t making a record of all gun “background checks”? Wishful thinkers pretend that isn’t gunowner registration, or that somehow gun registration is bad, but de facto gun owner registration is nothing to worry about.
Check out the dunce posse! Too dumb to reply coherently, barely smart enough to downvote. LOL. Over The Target.
Many have wised up to you and will not converse with you.
Yet you troll me. And your socks are not people. Nice try, Oathbreaker.
They will have to change US CODE 1st…expect lawsuits….
As for my own records of purchases, transfers, exchanges and previous licenses – STORED FOREVER!