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Is the NSA Building a National Gun Registry?

The answer is almost assuredly yes.

The NRA is making the news by joining the ACLU in a lawsuit that challenges a government phone-tracking program, a program that collects the phone records of American citizens.

The brief argues that the National Security Agency’s phone records collection program could “allow identification of NRA members, supporters, potential members, and other persons with whom the NRA communicates, potentially chilling their willingness to communicate with the NRA.”

The NRA argues in the brief that it would be “absurd” to think that Congress would take steps to prevent the creation of a national gun registry while simultaneously allowing the NSA to gather records that “could effectively create just such a registry.”

“If programs like those currently justified by the government’s interpretation are allowed to continue and grow unchecked, they could also—contrary to clear congressional intent—undo decades of legal protection for the privacy of Americans in general, and of gun owners in particular,” the brief states.

It will be interesting to see where this goes, but let’s be honest here for a minute. Do you really think that the government, with all of their spying, the gigantic databases of information with everything from credit card purchase history to phone records and emails to search and browser history, do you really think they can’t or haven’t already created a “list” of people who own guns?

Maybe the list has some false positives, and maybe they don’t know exactly how many guns you have, the make and model, etc, but come on people. If you don’t think the government knows that you’re a gun owner, you’re only fooling yourself.

Whether or not the government knows I belong to the NRA is the least of my concerns.

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10 Responses to Is the NSA Building a National Gun Registry?

  1. Eric Lopez September 5, 2013 at 11:14 am #

    Good point!

  2. TK September 5, 2013 at 11:40 am #

    Sad but true. All of these people who think they are hiding something from big brother are only fooling themselves.

  3. Jeremy September 5, 2013 at 11:47 am #

    Agreed. It’s only logical to think that we’ve already got asterisks by our names somewhere. You can’t have a society as digitally connected as we are without realizing somebody is always watching (or could at least have the ability to watch and take notes).

  4. Phil G September 5, 2013 at 12:46 pm #

    i used to work in a gun store and i can tell you from 1st hand experience everytime you get a background check done on you via the FBI NICS system…those records are indeed kept long term/forever by the ATF and whom ever else wants them at the federal level, because during one audit an auditor/inspector for the ATF had records in her hand of NICS checks info we had called in dating back 5 years on an individual

  5. Steve September 5, 2013 at 1:05 pm #

    Every CPL holder in the state of MI submits to a federal background check in order to get their CPL. There is no doubt in my mind that all of the information is maintained federally regardless if I have a gun or not.

  6. Eric September 5, 2013 at 3:09 pm #

    I first read that as ‘Is the NRA building a national gun registry?’ and thought ‘well of course, it’s called their mailing list’. Remember, they try to recruit gun-owning prospective members too.
    http://news.yahoo.com/national-rifle-association-keeps-database-of-gun-owners-and-potential-members–194327840.html

  7. 100atr September 5, 2013 at 6:02 pm #

    You know they are!

  8. hardh8 September 5, 2013 at 8:30 pm #

    and the police state grows while our individual rights shrink.

  9. Rob.G September 5, 2013 at 8:54 pm #

    To be frank, that list was started many years ago under a different administration long, long ago.
    No kidding, folks.

  10. Josh September 6, 2013 at 11:59 pm #

    SO…. if they are tapping phones, everytime I buy a weapon and my Name, Place of Birth, Social and the SN of the weapon all go over the phone lines… three words Aggregate, collect, sort.