...The ATF's ability to regulate gun acquisition is further restricted by the GCA due to the agency's inability to transfer records of gun purchases. The GCA requires licensed sellers, manufactures and importers to create and maintain records of gun purchases. The statute states that it is unlawful for any licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector to sell any firearm "to any person unless the licensee notes in his records, the name, age, and place of residence of such person if the person is an individual, or the identity and principal and local places of business of such person if the person is a corporation or other business entity." While this may infringe on some of the anonymity that a gun purchaser wishes to maintain, the transfer of such information is highly restricted, thus guarding the purchaser's privacy. For example, the GCA prevents the ATF from transferring any of these records from being recorded at or transferred to "a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof." Furthermore, the statute prohibits the establishment of any federal system of registering firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions or dispositions. The only exception to these prohibitions is federal inquiry into the disposition of any firearm in the course of a criminal investigation.
The GCA provides even further restrictions on the ATF's ability to maintain and compile records on a gun purchase. For example, except for court-ordered warrants and for records necessary for criminal investigations, the statute prohibits ATF compliance personnel from inspecting the inventory and records of a licensed firearm manufacturer, importer, or dealer more than once a year. While each licensed seller is required to maintain a report on multiple sales of firearms to an unlicensed person and forward the report to a local or state law enforcement agency, this agency cannot then disclose any contents to any person or entity, and more importantly, must destroy any record of the contents no more than 20 days after a record is received. The only exception to this provision is if the purchaser of the firearm is barred by federal law from acquiring a firearm or shipping one interstate. Thus, while there are some infringements on the privacy surrounding a firearm purchase, the infringements are quite restricted. Essentially only the firearm retailer or licensee has record of a gun purchase, and if such record needs to be forwarded to another agency for very limited purposes, this record must be destroyed within 20 days.
It is important to consider the FFL's record keeping requirements and their implications on the gun purchaser's privacy. When purchasing a firearm from an FFL, a Form 4473 (also known as the "Yellow Form"), as required by the ATF. The dealer must also record the sale in his transaction log. Form 4473 contains the name, address, NICS background check transaction number, serial number and model of the firearm, and a short federal affidavit stating that the purchaser is eligible to purchase firearms under federal law. Lying on this form is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison in addition to fines, even if the transaction is denied by NICS. The dealer must keep the Form 4473 for twenty years and is subject to inspection by the ATF to ensure compliance, but not more than once annually. The dealer also records all information from the form 4473 into his transaction log. A dealer must keep this log the entire time he is in business and is required to surrender the log to the ATF upon retirement from the firearms business. This record-keeping system creates an informal national firearm registration.
While it is not centralized, it is important to note that the information of a gun purchaser is held by the retail dealer. Some have argued for a centralized federal registration system of all firearms, but so far this has not been accepted....
http://www.epic.org/privacy/firearms/
