NRA and privacy rights
Reports that NRA opposed Rand Paul’s gun bill, with a 3 page letter. The bill would have clarified that the PATRIOT act does not allow authorities to access certain firearms records. I’m not sure what those record would be since they’re not allowed to keep a registry and must destroy form 4473s.
May 26th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
I’m scratching my head on a few points. Can someone give a high level play-by-play on this?
May 26th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
WTF, NRA?
May 26th, 2011 at 5:36 pm
We’re screwed.
I can’t imagine getting any more upset/disappointed with the Washington power structure. I guess I will always be an NRA member, but the SAF is definitely getting more of my money in the future.
May 26th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
4473’s are not destroyed
May 26th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Something smells fishy here. The press release doesn’t make sense. I’m skeptical.
May 26th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
4473s must be retained by the FFL for 20 years. Section 12.7 (3).
May 26th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Doesn’t the BATFE have a solid record of NOT destroying 4473s?
May 26th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
I agree, Sapper. I’d like to see the actual three-page letter.
I suspect the NRA has legitimate concerns which are not mentioned in the article. You don’t write a three-page letter to just tell someone you don’t support the law.
Of course, none of this will change the almost incessant NRA-bashing one finds on various gun boards nowadays. No matter what the NRA does, they’ll still be painted as villains by certain elements of the “gun rights” movement.
May 26th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
@Captain Holly
When you’re the 700# gorilla of the RKBA movement that regularly fails to even acknowledge the existence any other civil right group, you just have to expect a certain amount of nit-picking.
If it wasn’t for those noisy NRA members, I’m sure the NRA response to katrina would have ended with that strongly worded press statement that finally came out after several days of door to door gun seizures.
I’m the NRA, and I try very hard to keep them honest by being a noisy supporter.
May 26th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
The Reason piece does not tell us anything other than Reason is confused. The NRA has no “TEA Party” credentials – that’s not its charter.
May 26th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Also, I can tell you about another 700# “lobby on behalf of it’s members” group – the ARRL – would regularly oppose any proposal at all unless it originated from their steering committee.
At some point, sadly, it became more important to remain top chimp than to do whats best for amateur radio.
It took decades to get no-code licenses in the USA
May 26th, 2011 at 11:25 pm
I wonder if the NRA still employs that police guy who was arrested and convicted of false arrest and lying in court?
May 27th, 2011 at 1:41 am
4473’s have to be retained for 25 years and if the buisness goes under must be surrenedered to the ATF which they then put into a database. And they do destroy the records. They destroy thje original after making a photocopy and keeping THAT on file forever. And then why would the ATF go into a store and photocopy there ENTIRE 4473 collection without reason and intimidate the gun store owners into doing so.
I have also been told by someone in the know that there IS a central gun registry that has been up and maintained since at least the early 1980’s. Via the photocopying I brought up. It says everything about the gun and the original buyer. But it’s flawed as it doesn’t have private sales records. Must be why there so damn hellbent on ending them.
May 28th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Granted for the sake of argument that the PTB are maintaining various and sundry registries, why are they doing so and how are they paying for it?
At the federal level, it has to be kept at least nominally a secret, and there can’t be money officially appropriated for it. BATFE being the red-headed stepchildren of the federal law enforcement community, I doubt they’re getting much slush fund money.