ATF Requests Records Of Gun Owners In Alaska
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents have been visiting gun shops in Alaska and asking for records of firearms sales, stoking fears that the federal agency is building a list of gun owners in the state.
According to the Alaska Dispatch, earlier this year two gun shops in Alaska “reported that ATF agents had asked for their books, and both turned down the requests. The one shop that went on the record, Great Northern Guns in Anchorage, said the ATF agent asked politely for the books, and when store manager Frank Caiazza refused, the agent just as politely accepted the refusal.”
It is illegal for the ATF to remove any material from a gun shop unless it is part of a criminal investigation. The requests for records have lead some to question whether the “ATF will create some sort of list or database of gun owners,” states the report.
Alaska Rep. Don Young requested a meeting with ATF officials after receiving reports that ATF agents were visiting gun shops and asking to see record books.
During the meeting with Young, which took place last week, ATF Deputy Director Tom Brandon attempted to assure him that the, “ATF has never maintained a database of lawful firearms owners; is not permitted by law to create and maintain such a database; and has no intention whatsoever of collecting any information for such a database.”
However, as we reported last year, this represents merely the latest example of the ATF using intimidation tactics in an effort to obtain information about gun owners.
Last summer, the ATF sent letters to gun shops in border states ordering gun dealers to comply with a new “directive” and report to the feds sales of “two or more pistols or revolvers, or any combination of pistols or revolvers totaling two or more.”
While attempting to recruit gun store owners as informants to spy on their customers, we talked to several gun dealers in Austin and one of our own staff members who reported that the ATF was conducting intimidating home visits during which they demanded to be allowed inside without a warrant, while implying that gun owners could be terrorists for purchasing two or more firearms at a time.
This is all of course very ironic given the fact that it is the ATF itself which was caught delivering firearms to drug cartels in Mexico as part of the Fast and Furious scandal.
Americans who purchase guns are already forced to undergo checks against the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System to prove they are not a felon. The ATF has no business either demanding to see records of gun owners or carrying out threatening home visits – such conduct is completely illegal.
After being caught sending weapons to Mexican criminals that were used to kill U.S. Border Patrol agents, police and citizens, the ATF is now treating American citizens like criminals simply for exercising their second amendment rights, all under the guise of a regulation (purchasing two or more firearms) that was rejected by Congress and never became law.
The ATF’s efforts to intimidate both gun sellers and purchasers really picked up steam last year after President Obama told gun control advocate Sarah Brady that his administration was working “under the radar” to sneak attack the second amendment.
During a March 30, 2011 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at which Obama “dropped in,” the president reportedly told Brady, “I just want you to know that we are working on it (gun control)….We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”The quote appeared in a Washington Post story about Obama’s gun control czar Steve Croley.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
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