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SOURCE: Ammoland.com

WASHINGTON, D.C.-(Ammoland.com)- In April of 2021 AmmoLand News obtained a leak from the ATF showing that the Bureau was monitoring people’s firearm transactions that MIGHT commit a crime in the future. Using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the ATF kept tabs on over 1,000 American citizens. These law-abiding Americans have not committed any crime and are not under investigation. These are people the ATF or FBI believe are at risk of committing a crime in the future.

Gun rights activists have long worried the government would target law-abiding gun owners using NICS. It worried Gun Owners of America to the point they filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The goal of the FOIA was to determine how many Americans the ATF and FBI are tracking.

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It’s outrageous that our government is spying on law-abiding gun owners, who have committed no crimes,” GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt told AmmoLand News. “Congress needs to rein in the ATF and put a stop to this immediately.” “This is like the movie Minority Report, where the government targets those who might commit a crime. There are multiple problems with what the ATF is doing here, but let me use an analogy that even anti-gun Leftists should comprehend. What would they have said if the Trump administration had spied on illegal aliens who might vote in an election? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would have been calling for impeachment hearings.”

The FOIA found that in May of 2020, the ATF was monitoring the firearms purchases of 525 people using NICS. That number has exploded to 826 individuals as of April 2021. The current trend is to monitor more instead of less law-abiding Americans. If this trend continues the ATF will be monitoring every American who ever legally purchased a firearm using a NICS background check.

The same FOIA also revealed the number of firearms purchases monitored by the FBI dropped in the corresponding period. In May of 2020, the FBI was watching 255 people’s purchases through NICS. That number dropped to 241. The drop can be attributed to the outlier month of June 2020 where the Bureau deleted 35 people from its search. Excluding that one month, the FBI also increased the number of Americans it is monitoring. None of the documents provided in the FOIA explains the drop in people monitored by the FBI for June 2020.

These totals (from May 2020 to April 2021) put the number of law-abiding Americans monitored by the federal government for practicing their Second Amendment right at over 1,000 people. The FOIA did not explain why the FBI and the ATF have chosen to monitor these gun owners. GOA and AmmoLand News both have vowed to keep digging until we uncover the truth.

AmmoLand News has reached out to the FBI and the ATF in an attempt to get clarity on who the people being monitored are and why the government has chosen to watch them. So far, the government has not responded to AmmoLand’s request for comment.

[NOTE: Link above has digital images of the FOIA request and responses from ATF and FBI]

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No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established.

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Gun rights activists have long worried the government would target law-abiding gun owners using NICS.

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
AmmoLand News has reached out to the FBI and the ATF in an attempt to get clarity on who the people being monitored are and why the government has chosen to watch them.So far, the government has not responded to AmmoLand’s request for comment.

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Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
AmmoLand News has reached out to the FBI and the ATF in an attempt to get clarity on who the people being monitored are and why the government has chosen to watch them.So far, the government has not responded to AmmoLand’s request for comment.

This news is disturbing. I'll be interested in learning what the ATF and FBI responses are...but I'm confused on one point; according the portion in bold above, the government agencies haven't yet responded, but the thread title is "ATF & FBI Admit to Using NICS to Monitor Over 1,000 Law-Abiding Gun Owners"

What have they admitted to?

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Originally posted by DaBigBR:
500ish people..."exploded" to over 800. Seriously? I understand the potential farther-reaching implications, but we're talking about fewer than one thousand people and we don't know exactly why they're being monitored. I'm going to go ahead and not get all worked up over this.