Abuse of NICS

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NICS needs to be eliminated:

Rand Paul Probes ATF Secret Surveillance Program

Concerned over reports of secret surveillance of American gun owners by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking for answers.

On April 10, Sen. Paul, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, wrote a letter to ATF Director Daniel Driscoll requesting information on a secretive program that appears to allow the federal government to monitor law-abiding Americans attempting to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

According to Sen. Paul, based on limited public information, the NICS Audit Log Review (Monitoring) system appears to allow ATF agents to request monitoring of a target for time frames ranging from 30 to 180 days after providing identifying information and applicable or potential violations of statute. Upon approval, the ATF would receive an alert(s) from the FBI using the information in its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

People should go to jail over this. I hope they enjoy their trials.

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9 thoughts on “Abuse of NICS”

  1. NCIS headline had me concerned until I read the rest. Our Master at Arms just smirked when I asked to see the NCIS afloat agent who was worse than useless. As for NICS, yeah.

      • Without Gibbs, DiNozzo and Ziva, the show sucks and does need to be eliminated.
        Same for the NICS.

      • No problem. Pytos happen. At least there wasn’t a superfluous apostrophe.

  2. The ATF….AND the FBI….both need to be eliminated. Both are corrupt agencies that systemically and routinely violate Rights and ignore any laws they find inconvenient.

    • Also, neither is permitted to exist, by the plain English text of Article 1 Section 8.

  3. I am not at all surprised… I am surprised that the records aren’t available for longer than 180 days.

    While private sale is best, many states don’t allow it – second best is to use a CCW at a small dealer with paper records – they are unlikely to get audited and there is no way to get sneaky online access (it is assumed that the government has access to the online bound book systems).
    With no call in, the government doesn’t know anything was bought without sending out an IOI to that particular store

  4. Seems like more of an FBI problem. Is data sharing authorized by statute?

    • Nope! Data on successful background checks is supposed to be deleted quickly, IIRC within 24 hours.
      Retaining it is specifically prohibited.

      State laws are a different matter…

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