BATF considering rescinding 20 year burn date for firearm purchase records

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I don’t buy into the notion that the ATF is seeking to create a gun registry and so it wants 4473s kept by dealers forever. Form 4473 was first employed over. 45 years ago. When it was created some lawmakers wanted to include a gun registry in the law. That language never made it into the law to assure its passage. A gun registry is prohibited by festers law law. The Firearms Act of 1986 prohibits a federal gun registry with these words:

No such rule or regulation prescribed [by the Attorney General] after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or disposition be established. Nothing in this section expands or restricts the Secretary's authority to inquire into the disposition of any firearm in the course of a criminal investigation.
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So the ATF cannot create a registry unless the law is amended, and I think there is no chance that there would be the votes in Congress to do that. But even if they did it the registry would have to mine millions of 4473s to extract the data after they got all FFLs to send the forms to the ATF (or other agency). Consider that there are already pseudo gun owner registries in the US. Some are manufacturers’ registration files. Some are records of CCW license holders in the states. In PA a buyer has to have a PA background check too. The State Police maintain that system so the SP have a database of gun sales and the buyers, etc. I just don’t worry about such stuff.
 
We’ve seen the executive branch repeatedly attempt to nullify existing law or effectively create new laws utilizing the power of executive action. The fact that something is illegal isn’t seen a blocker by the admistrative state. They see law as obstructions that are meant to be dealt with and not obeyed. The fact that our duly elected legislator has made a law based upon the will of the people is no longer of importance. It’s no longer even hidden. You can hear the POTUS and his cabinet plainly telling the populace they are looking into what we can be done with executive action because they don’t have enough of a majority to get actual legislation passed.


Second of all, you may not realize it but the government has digitized hundreds of millions of formerly paper documents in the last several years. You can very quickly convert paper into databases these days.



1942bull said:
I don’t buy into the notion that the ATF is seeking to create a gun registry and so it wants 4473s kept by dealers forever. Form 4473 was first employed over. 45 years ago. When it was created some lawmakers wanted to include a gun registry in the law. That language never made it into the law to assure its passage. A gun registry is prohibited by festers law law. The Firearms Act of 1986 prohibits a federal gun registry with these words:




So the ATF cannot create a registry unless the law is amended, and I think there is no chance that there would be the votes in Congress to do that. But even if they did it the registry would have to mine millions of 4473s to extract the data after they got all FFLs to send the forms to the ATF (or other agency). Consider that there are already pseudo gun owner registries in the US. Some are manufacturers’ registration files. Some are records of CCW license holders in the states. In PA a buyer has to have a PA background check too. The State Police maintain that system so the SP have a database of gun sales and the buyers, etc. I just don’t worry about such stuff.
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1942bull said:
The Firearms Act of 1986 prohibits a federal gun registry with these words:

So the ATF cannot create a registry unless the law is amended,
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Or they can say “it’s just a record not a registry”
We’d disagree, file a law suite, lose, appeal all the way to scotus who agrees with them.. we lose

All I’m saying is by the words in the NFA a bump stock isn’t a machine gun. The written words in laws only matter until they don’t, it’s unfortunate but it’s how it’s works now.
 
1942bull said:
I don’t buy into the notion that the ATF is seeking to create a gun registry and so it wants 4473s kept by dealers forever. Form 4473 was first employed over. 45 years ago. When it was created some lawmakers wanted to include a gun registry in the law. That language never made it into the law to assure its passage. A gun registry is prohibited by festers law law. The Firearms Act of 1986 prohibits a federal gun registry with these words:



So the ATF cannot create a registry unless the law is amended, and I think there is no chance that there would be the votes in Congress to do that. But even if they did it the registry would have to mine millions of 4473s to extract the data after they got all FFLs to send the forms to the ATF (or other agency). Consider that there are already pseudo gun owner registries in the US. Some are manufacturers’ registration files. Some are records of CCW license holders in the states. In PA a buyer has to have a PA background check too. The State Police maintain that system so the SP have a database of gun sales and the buyers, etc. I just don’t worry about such stuff.
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The Second Amendment says that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, too. That's why your state has shall-issue concealed carry :rofl:

You're putting way too much faith in the government.
 
CherokeeGunslinger said:
The Second Amendment says that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, too. That's why your state has shall-issue concealed carry :rofl:

You're putting way too much faith in the government.
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I can understand your thinking that, but it is incorrect. I actually have no faith in the government. It fails on a daily basis to exercise common sense and understand the adage of Von Bismarck: “Politics is the art of the possible and accomplishable.” Our politicians prefer stand-off to compromise. That is why congress is not going to amend the law to approve a gun registry. It would be a hot button issue and no one would compromise for fear of losing the votes of their diverse constituencies. The president cannot nullify a law by executive order. Trump found that out, and now Biden is too. I often feel protected by the inability of Congress to get things done.
 
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