Electronic record-keeping would become the default under another proposed rule, which would allow Form 4473s and Acquisition and Disposition Records to be generated, stored, and maintained electronically. Not only would this make record-keeping more convenient for dealers, but it would also improve firearm tracing for law enforcement since digital records are faster and easier to search than paper files. [More]
What could go wrong? Especially if administrations change…?
I’m wondering why this is listed under “Big Wins for Gun Owners”…
There I go blackpilling again.
Look, I get that there is only so much they can do because “law,” and think I understand incrementalism as well as the next guy, but the way I see “gun influencers” gushing over this and over Cekada makes some apologists for and abettors in infringements.
There are ways to encourage moves to roll back the oppression that don’t require gun owners to end up with sore knees and from a lot of what I’ve seen, Anon has a point.
As I read the part celebrating the purported “benefits” of all-electronic 4473 completion and retention, I can only stand in astonishment. Do the writers and editors honestly believe that is a good idea, or that knowledgeable committed 2A readers would think so? With “pro 2A” friends like these, who the hell needs Brady and Giffords?
Having the records electronically stored would also make it impossible to ensure that any database containing them was ever 100% destroyed. There would be backups and backups of the backups stored offsite and even unauthorized copies stored in insecure locations.
Does anyone else remember Hillary’s email server in her home closet?
If that stash of 4473s BATFE has stored in those trailers was ever fully scanned, I’d be willing to bet it would fit into a thumbdrive.
https://phisonblog.com/phison-this-is-the-highest-capacity-usb-thumb-drive-you-can-buy-right-now/
Try imagining how many 4473’s will fit into 4TB. Now try securing the result.
And if it’s network-accessible, anywhere, it will eventually be hacked and compromised by unknown actors.
An information store like that — complete with names, addresses, makes and models of millions of real guns, etc., and continually updating in real time or in overnight batches — would be absolutely priceless to criminals. It will be a target, and there’s no way to secure it perfectly. Eventually someone will get access who shouldn’t.
What I’ve been saying the whole time — and coming from a technical background.
All-electronic completion of the 4473 includes text fields, which are electronically searchable as-is. Something the BATFE is (currently) prohibited from doing. Making it easier does not scream “securing the blessings of Liberty,” does it?
But even if the paper forms were just scanned in as raw images rather than direct text, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has advanced to the point that even hand-written text is recognizable by a computer. (It actually hit that point years ago.) So the second a paper form is scanned into an electronic database, it’s text-searchable.
As said above, the BATFE is (currently) prohibited from importing 4473s into an electronically-searchable database. Why the Hell is anyone proposing building a system that does it for them?
Especially someone ostensibly on OUR side?
“Now try securing the result.”
I’d use my phison wallet.
(Sorry, it was just hanging there like a slowball.)
How many copies will get made for data integrity purposes? How many “just because”? Will anyone’s wallet hold them all? Will anyone’s security protocol keep them all under control? How many copies will end up in some doddering old fool’s Corvette, parked in a garage left open to all comers by his drug addled son?
And if just one of those copies gets turned into a .torrent and cataloged on BTDigg?
A copy of an episode of “Game of Thrones” magically appeared in the bittorrent universe before it even aired and almost instantly became the most pirated file in history. But that was a popular TV show.
Perhaps a database purportedly showing the data on every 4473 ever collected in the USA since 1968 would be a popular download to some folks. Only one way to find out!
Digitize it and see how long it takes for some hacker in Uzbekistan to put it on the web.