VIDEO BELOW: Watch Judge Napolitano tear into the ATF in his own irrefutable style.
“It shouldn’t surprise us, its reprehensible, it violates federal law, it violates Supreme Court opinion, it violates our natural right to self defense which is protected by the Second Amendment.”
From insider.foxnews.com
Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on “Fox and Friends” to react to a bombshell report that the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is illegally stockpiling the personal information of gun owners.
Judge Napolitano explained that the government is supposed to gather that information for statistical purposes only, and they are mandated to destroy identifiable information such as names and addresses.
The report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, found that the ATF is not adhering to that policy.
“Congress decided that since the states regulate guns – not the federal government – the federal government would never be able to keep a list of every gun owner and every gun owned by that person,” Judge Napolitano said. “But they are.”
He attributed this disturbing revelation to the anti-gun policies of the Obama administration:
“This lawless administration has broken that law and retained that information.”
He warned that this is not only illegal, it gives a future anti-gun president or administration the ability to harass gun owners and possibly even confiscate their firearms.
“It’s reprehensible, it violates federal law, it violates a Supreme Court opinion, it violates our natural right to self-defense, which is protected by the Second Amendment.”
According to thefederalistpapers.com, the head of the ATF was really interested in gathering a database of all gun owners in America. But they couldn’t, and that upset Deputy Director Thomas Brandon. Congress has banned, by law, the feds from compiling a database of gun owners.
“Would it be efficient and effective [with new technology]? Absolutely,” he said. “Would the taxpayers benefit with public safety? Absolutely. Are we allowed to do it? No.” Well it turns out that the feds were doing it anyway.
A report from the Government Accountability Office released Monday showed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was, in fact stockpiling gun owners’ personal identification – a flagrant violation of federal law. Here’s how The Daily Caller explains it:
One of the data-collecting systems called Multiple Sales (MS) requires that multiple firearms purchased at once must be reported to ATF by the federal firearms licensee (FFL). ATF policy requires that the bureau internally removes particular data from multiple gun sales reports after two years if the firearm has not been traced to criminal activity. GAO found that ATF does not adhere to its own policy. In fact, “until May 2016, MS contained over 10,000 names that were not consistently deleted within the required 2 years.”
The report stated that the study was conducted to the ATF could improve its policies, but also stressed that the bureau has a role in “protecting the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.” The report claims that ATF agreed with the report recommendations.
Another system called Access 2000, or A2K, establishes servers to be used by National Tracing Center (NTC) personnel. The NTC can electronically search FFLs’ records for certain information needed to track the history of a firearm.
While GAO’s investigation revealed that A2K for currently-operating FFLs complied with formal policy, A2K for out-of-business FFLs did not comply with the restrictions “because ATF maintained these data on a single server.” They were directed to get rid of this consolidated information and did so in March 2016. Furthermore, GAO found that ATF does not, but potentially should, have an outlined policy that specifies how out-of-business FFLs should submit documentation of compliance or share pertinent information.”
Now, that they’ve been caught, these agencies shrug their shoulders, mumble an “I’m sorry” and promise never to do it again. If we end up with a President Clinton, that apology will probably turn into a smug grin and a “who cares?”
VIDEO: Judge Andrew Napolitano Blasts Obama Admin for ‘Reprehensible,’ ‘Lawless’ for Stockpiling of Gun Owner Info
sources: insider.foxnews, a very well written article by Robert Gehl from thefederalistpapers and an excellent explanation of the problem from The Daily Caller.