I went to Cabela's today... the store in Glendale, AZ. I went to get some titegroup for my reloading bench, but I saw a Marlin 795 sitting in the rack and I've been wanting a new one for awhile to replace my aging, long in the tooth and abused Marlin autoloader.
I had cash in my pocket, I was ready to buy: I whipped out my CCW permit and driver's license, told the clerk I'd take it, and he produced a 4473.
He told me to write my phone number across the top of it. There's no field to do so. ATF is very picky about forms in recent years... those of you not familiar, just look up Red's Trading Post in Idaho as an example.
Anyways, I started writing and then a thought hit me: WHY am I writing this down?
I asked the clerk, and he told me:
Cabelas voluntarily faxes all of their 4473 forms to the FBI.
I told the clerk that I would not be purchasing the gun, I put my money away and my license/permit. I reached out for the 4473 that had my phone number on the top, intending to take it with me. Clerk told me I couldn't have it "because it was a government form." Whatever. I told him I want my phone number off the form, so he tore off the corner that had it and I took that with me.
I took my 2 pounds of powder to the register and paid for it. Came home, did some research.
Here's my thinking: Unless deliberately empowered to do something, Government is prohibited from acting. Since no gun registration is in place and the FBI is certainly not tasked with either tracing firearms or collecting firearms data, it is a violation of their mission to be accepting this information.
Congress specifically empowered the Attorney General (as one of the nation's top federal law enforcement officers and overseer of the FBI and ATF) to obtain access to 4473's only by the means described in USC Title 18, Section 923(g)(1)(A) through (g)(1)(D). None of those methods allow for a federal agency to accept en masse the entire contents of an active FFL's 4473 library.
I've called the store director, Tom Forsyth (623-872-6700), and left a message. I told him I wanted to know:
1. if what this clerk told me was true;
2. the fax number used to send these forms;
3. the location of the FBI office that accepts these forms;
4. the name of the special agent in charge of that division of the FBI.
It is my intention to contact my AZ State Senator and look into adding to Arizona ARS statutes, to prohibit FFL dealers from voluntarily creating a federal agency gun registry.
While it's completely possible that this clerk was a total bone-head and didn't know what he was talking about... I find it very odd that Cabelas wants my phone number in the upper left corner of 4473 forms.
Does anyone else know of FFL's who want this extra info?
Does anyone else know of active FFL's who are sending their 4473's off-site to the ATF or FBI?
Can anyone else confirm this experience at a Cabelas or other large chain FFL?
It is my intent to contact the SAIC of this FBI branch and initiate an FOIA request detailing the earliest dates of 4473 copies, the storage media type on which they are archived (paper or electronic), if they have been integrated into any searchable system, and an approximate count of 4473's currently populating these archives, grouped by FFL license number.