U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “On television, when a perpetrator leaves a gun at the scene, a quick computer search can point law enforcement to the weapon’s owner,” an August 6 promotion piece for one in a series of “gun control” videos being “curated” by The Atlantic. “In reality—at least in the United States—no such database of firearms exists.”
Thank goodness one doesn’t. That’s prohibited by law to prevent a government that increasingly comes up with “creative” edicts to confiscate arms without due process and, significantly, without Constitutional authority. But resurrected complaints about not being able to do that to all of us are once again making headlines in order to swindle a public that for the most part doesn’t know any better out of its birthright. Examples over recent years from the usual suspects include:
- How the N.R.A. Keeps Federal Gun Regulators in Check
- The ATF’s Nonsensical Non-Searchable Gun Databases
- The Low-Tech Way Guns Get Traced: NPR
- Let the ATF’s Firearms Tracing Center Do its Job – Bloomberg
- How the NRA Hobbled the ATF – Mother Jones
You get the drift. The gun-grabbers want to make it easy to find out who has what to help them reach the bottom of Nancy Pelosi’s slippery slope.
Supplementing that, getting trace data released has been a goal of billionaire gun-grabber Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown, which filed suit in 2015. As usual, their high-sounding goals mask the underhanded motive of abusing data to “name and shame” and close down gun dealers and manufacturers ATF has not found cause to shutter.
Left unsaid (in blaming their inability at circumventing the law on NRA and “the gun lobby”) is the inconvenient truth that even ATF and the Fraternal Order of Police support the Tiahrt Amendment, limiting the release of specific tracing data to law enforcement investigations and prosecutions. The Bureau has “fought for years in the federal courts to keep trace records confidential because they contain information (such as names of gun buyers) that could jeopardize ongoing investigations—not to mention law enforcement officers’ lives.”
Also left unsaid in all this “urgent need” for high-speed data are two other inconvenient truths:
The national time-to-crime average is 9.3 years. That and ATF puts an important disclaimer in all of its state reports:
“Not all firearms used in crime are traced and not all firearms traced are used in crime.”
That makes it fair to ask – and expect answers to – how many cases are solved based on traces. How many perpetrators have been convicted that would otherwise not have been had ATF not identified a name gleaned from a retailer’s 4473 copy? Intuitively, if you catch the perp, it would seem you’ve solved the case. Ditto, what percentage of guns found at the scene trace back to the “retail purchaser” who is either guilty or able to provide a useful lead to who is? Factoring in the costs of these operations, how much does that work out to per solved crime?
The other information I’d like to see is if, after all the effort and expense, there is any real-world validation of the agent’s claim in the video that “We’re actually doing something here that might save a life.”
“Might”? Has it happened before? How many times? How effective has tracing proven to be in producing that outcome?
It’s not a question of putting a price on human lives, but one of assessing if resources placed elsewhere, or if a reduction in infringements, might actually save more lives. Instead, without even considering those questions, the push is on once more to spend untold funding on a database system to identify all “law-abiding” gun owners and tell authorities exactly what it is they have.
The motive is obviously not to save lives, that’s just the line the citizen disarmament swindlers use in their long con to draw in the ignorant, the gullible and the stupid. The reason is to enable confiscation as the “red flag” net tightens, “universal background checks” subject more names and property to enforcement scrutiny and new gun bans take effect.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
What the Atlantic will also never point out is a simple fact that there is no such thing as a registration or background check for a stolen firearm. What good does it do to trace a firearm back to a victim who was burglarized? Not a freaking thing…
If any pro control idiots read this, by all means go ahead and comment with your what if scenario. I already have a good idea what you are going to say, and already have an answer.
Well, let’s just look to history — not US history, but actual history nonetheless. From 1995 to 2012, Canada had PRECISELY the type of registration that these tyrants want. It ended up costing three orders of magnitude more than its backers projected. (Just to make it perfectly clear, this doesn’t mean “three times more,” it means “a THOUSAND times more.”) It was never successful at solving a single actual crime – except for the brand new crime of “failure to register,“ an entirely artificial “crime“ existing ONLY because the government had created a registry! If it was so useless and… Read more »
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BATF dweeb shows up at door.. Hi, there, I’d like some information about a firearm you bought some time ago. Which one? (make model serial number comes out). Hmm.. I don’t recall that one. How long ago do your records show I bought that, and from where? (day month year come out) Hmmm. well, I’ve had quite a lot happen in the ten years since that. I did sell quite a few guns at some gun shows, trying to raise some cash cause I got hurt and was off work for some time (absolutely true, documentable) Did those sales get… Read more »
Over the decades, I’ve seen many states proffer bills that require owners to promptly report stolen firearms. I’ve also read many reports of police raids that confiscate up to hundreds of firearms. But I’ve never heard of a single piece being returned to an owner. Seems such reports annoy owners and waste police time. Perhaps stolen gun report laws should be repealed. It would be like taking back our rights inch by inch.
All gun owners should trade, with each other, like type gun with like type gun with others. This so the firearm we bought is no longer with us, but we have effectively removed even that question of where the firearm is currently. Better than burying it or losing it in a lake, as I read other commentators recommend.
For anyone that believes you do not have de facto registration in this country , you are wrong.. Every time you do a background check you fill out a 4473 form…The form is kept by your FFL dealer as long as he/she is in business.. The dealers have to keep strict detailed records that the ATF periodically checks on in-store visits.. The agents are very strict on compliance with the record keeping… If they run out of business , the dealers have to send all 4473 forms and records in to the ATF… Do you honestly believe that those are… Read more »
I believe at this point until we can get SCOTUS to enforce Article VI across all levels of government, it’s in the people’s hands to ensure compliance. The Left propelled by the medium of the Democrats is a cancerous scourge embedded into our nation in various regions and locales. A registration scheme and gun bans must be disregarded by those who take their oath seriously. I believe SCOTUS will be able to resolve all the Article VI violations, but they will not be motivated unless “WE THE PEOPLE” demand action and get POTUS to fund expedite the process, because frankly… Read more »
l love how he gets confused while explaining the digital transfer from a paper forms to PDF or ??????? JPEG. How insingnificant that is today with recognition software that can find letters or names and or numbers on a picture document. industry has used this for years to converting old documents to a new digital format rather than retyping documents.
Then his last remark how they maybe able to prevent a killings in the future. Read John Lotts book “The War On Guns” he dives into to how this process does not work to prevent anything. Very interesting read.
If there is a secret registration somewhere I wouldn’t be to worried anyway. It’s the government, they’ll screw it up.
All of my military records went up in flames in a warehouse fire or something. Either way they lost them all. Luckily I had a copy. The only record the government has of me in the military is that I was in from one date to another. There wasn’t even a copy of orders except for basic training.
My point is they don’t know what you have and your a damn fool if you tell them.