The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Paper Trail (or lack thereof). What's it worth?

Webleymkv · November 23, 2012, 09:20 AM

Lets stop and think about a few things for a moment. If you listen to what the dealer says when he/she calls in the NICS check, the only information that they give about the firearm itself is whether its a long gun or handgun, that's it. The identifying information such as make, model, caliber, and serial number is only recorded on the 4473 which, as has been pointed out, is retained by the dealer until 20 years has passed or he/she no longer has an FFL, whichever comes first.

Now, on the extremely remote chance that there is somehow a Feinstein "turn them all in Mr. and Mrs. America" total ban (the chances of which are almost nill in light of Heller and McDonald), the only way that the gov't has to know exactly what guns you have is to track down all of the 4473's you've filled out. That would be an extremely difficult task to do for even one person if said person had bought multiple guns from multiple FFL's (I myself have bought guns from at least 8 FFL's that I can think of right off the top of my head) and, if the person has been buying guns for over 20 years not all of those 4473's may even still be in existence. Also, because private-party sales are legal in most states, there is no guarantee that the person will still have all, or even any, of the guns listed on the 4473's.

Now, as difficult as using 4473's as a registration for one person would be, it would be just about impossible for the millions of Americans who've filled them out. The more likely way that some sort of nightmare confiscation scheme would be executed would be to simply show up and search the home of everyone who's ever had a NICS check run or, more likely, just go house-to-house and search everyone's home whether they're known to own a gun or not.

Of course, if we should ever get to the point that the jack-booted thugs are knocking down doors to take away the guns (which as I said before is extremely unlikely), we probably have bigger problems than whether or not our names are in a database somewhere.

November 23, 2012, 09:20 AM	#23
Webleymkv Senior Member Join Date: July 20, 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 10,446	Lets stop and think about a few things for a moment. If you listen to what the dealer says when he/she calls in the NICS check, the only information that they give about the firearm itself is whether its a long gun or handgun, that's it. The identifying information such as make, model, caliber, and serial number is only recorded on the 4473 which, as has been pointed out, is retained by the dealer until 20 years has passed or he/she no longer has an FFL, whichever comes first. Now, on the extremely remote chance that there is somehow a Feinstein "turn them all in Mr. and Mrs. America" total ban (the chances of which are almost nill in light of Heller and McDonald), the only way that the gov't has to know exactly what guns you have is to track down all of the 4473's you've filled out. That would be an extremely difficult task to do for even one person if said person had bought multiple guns from multiple FFL's (I myself have bought guns from at least 8 FFL's that I can think of right off the top of my head) and, if the person has been buying guns for over 20 years not all of those 4473's may even still be in existence. Also, because private-party sales are legal in most states, there is no guarantee that the person will still have all, or even any, of the guns listed on the 4473's. Now, as difficult as using 4473's as a registration for one person would be, it would be just about impossible for the millions of Americans who've filled them out. The more likely way that some sort of nightmare confiscation scheme would be executed would be to simply show up and search the home of everyone who's ever had a NICS check run or, more likely, just go house-to-house and search everyone's home whether they're known to own a gun or not. Of course, if we should ever get to the point that the jack-booted thugs are knocking down doors to take away the guns (which as I said before is extremely unlikely), we probably have bigger problems than whether or not our names are in a database somewhere.