Concerned over reports of secret surveillance of American gun owners by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking for answers.
On April 10, Sen. Paul, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, wrote a letter to ATF Director Daniel Driscoll requesting information on a secretive program that appears to allow the federal government to monitor law-abiding Americans attempting to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
According to Sen. Paul, based on limited public information, the NICS Audit Log Review (Monitoring) system appears to allow ATF agents to request monitoring of a target for time frames ranging from 30 to 180 days after providing identifying information and applicable or potential violations of statute. Upon approval, the ATF would receive an alert(s) from the FBI using the information in its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Sen. Paul said the existence of this program, along with the ATF’s longstanding push to conceal it from the public, raise questions about its general use and its potential to infringe on Americans’ civil liberties.
“This kind of backdoor surveillance of American citizens—without due process or public disclosure—should alarm every single person who values the Bill of Rights,” Sen. Paul said in a news release announcing the effort. “The ATF and FBI have no business creating secret watchlists for law-abiding Americans seeking to purchase firearms. It’s unacceptable, and I intend to get answers.”
In his letter, Sen. Paul wrote: “I write requesting information regarding the use of certain systems by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request by Gun Owners of America, the ATF inadvertently released unredacted documents regarding a system monitoring Americans seeking to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment. Upon realizing their error, the ATF initiated an ongoing, yearslong effort to prevent the release of those documents.”
Also in the letter, Sen.Paul demanded that the ATF provide unredacted records showing how many Americans have been subjected to this monitoring, for what reasons, the legal basis for the program, whether it has led to prosecutions and whether there has been any misuse by ATF personnel or contractors.
Representatives of Gun Owners of America (GOA), the pro-gun rights group that initially sought the information from the ATF before being stonewalled, was grateful to Sen. Paul for pursuing the matter further.
“An activist judge subjected GOA to a ‘gag order’ after the Biden Administration mistakenly gave us information related to its unlawful NICS Monitoring program,” Aidan Johnston, GOA director of federal affairs, said. “ATF and FBI have no business monitoring the gun purchases of American citizens. GOA has since learned that the FBI abused NICS Monitoring to enforce California’s ‘assault weapons’ ban. We are thankful to Chairman Paul and the Senate Homeland Security Committee for opening an investigation into this egregious violation of Second and Fourth Amendment rights.”
In the letter, Sen. Paul gave the ATF an April 24 deadline for submitting answers to the committee.
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