I think the ATF would sooner keep an illegal registry of firearms via 4473 forms rather than browse through gun forums looking for pictures of serial numbers to then try and determine who owns which account.
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Serial numbers??? Markings??? License plates??
- Thread starter ridin42
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There was a story noted here just a day ago about the USPS having a program to scan social media for 'information.' You really don't think that there are segments of our government that aren't doing everything they can to support their goals of taking our rights?
I'm saying the government already knows which numbers and letters are imprinted onto your firearms. I'd rather they didn't, but at the end of the day the knowledge doesn't do much of anything. Unless you've never visited any gun websites ever, then the government already has a good idea of whether or not you own firearms. Short of door to door confiscation, this information doesn't do them much of any good as far as I can see.
They already know I own firearms. In my case, simply because I have a Georgia WCL and that I've had to complete dozens of Forms 4473. All I can say is that there is federal statute that precludes them from compiling a gun registry database even though they get the gun, SN and purchaser information contemporaneously via the LGS asking for NICS check. THAT information is precluded by law from being held and added to a 'gun registry.' Do they do it anyway? Probably. I'm just saying it's not a good idea to take a picture of a gun you want to sell/trade that shows the serial number because IF there are government ghouls out there assigned to look for that kind of stuff (very likely based on the USPS revelations) I'm not gonna do their job for them by posting a picture of it.
Month 7, day 19, hour 5. The ATF agent, forever vigilant, continues browsing gun forums in hopes to find the serial numbers of the people on his "gun owners" list. Finally, after $37,884 of taxpayer dollars going to his salary so far this year, finally, gun owner #87,411,663, a particularly devious citizen whom this agent despises, posts a picture of a revolver for sale and the serial number is there for him to view! The rush of excitement the agent felt was only exceeded by his anticipation of what came next. The agent scribbled the serial number of the revolver onto a parchment using the blood of an aborted child. He then, in a gleeful haste, rushed out of his office, down the hall, and down the stairwell. Down and down the agent went until he was 20 stories below the surface of the Earth and in the satanic temple all ATF agents use once they've discovered a citizen's firearm's serial number. Using his arcane, unholy knowledge, he chanted the serial number over and over again. "S393534V" the agent chanted. "S393534V" the agent chanted, this time in a strangely lower voice. "S393534V" The agent chanted, this time in what was clearly a demonic voice. "S393534V!" he finally roared in a hundred voices, only one his own and the others of the many demons who had then possessed him by this point. With that final chant, the unholy forces whom this agent called upon opened the earth below gun owner #87,411,663's home, swallowing him and his family into the depths of hell to be tormented eternally, their existence forever erased from the minds and records of mankind.
My point, is that the only relevant information for the government is who owns guns or not, and they already know for the most part who does and who doesn't. Do you watch gun videos online? Do you post in gun forms like this one? Guess what, the government knows that you own guns. What specifics numbers are listed on the guns you own is almost entirely irrelevant. What are they supposed to do with the specific knowledge of your serial numbers that they wouldn't do with the simple knowledge that you're a gun owner?
My other point, is essentially just Occam's Razor. Why posit a more complicated explanation of ATF agents specifically browsing and looking for serial numbers on guns posted for sale online in gun forums instead of positing the more simple explanation of the ATF just keeping a registry of firearms stored from when the information is provided to them? Either way the registry is illegal; if they're going to break the law to keep one they're probably going to get that information in the easiest, most simple manner.
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The government doesn’t have anything better to do than to spy on American citizens.
Truth. I've had two friends stopped being FFLs, both a couple of years ago. They boxed their files up and mailed 'em to the BATFE. But for years and years prior, neither had an ATF ask for any 4473 that was completed by a "concealed carry" / weapons permit buyer.
Now, I'm sure the BATFE could scan all those forms into some OCR capable machine, but I really don't think they do. Maybe they do though.
