The group provided by the owners of firearms asked three federal agencies to explore how the main group of lobbying guns secretly used intimate details of weapons for political purposes.
When performing the request owners of weapons for safety cited the PROPUBLICA investigation It is detailed as Fund of National Sports Sports Translated into sensitive personal information about weapons buyers in political operatives, presenting themselves as a harsh supporter of the owners of firearms. Leaf – Sent last week to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives – is called a secret NSSF program, which has covered almost two decades “insufficient”.
“The privacy of weapons owners is not a guerrilla and ideological problem,” Malcolm Smith wrote, but Weapons owners for security Member. “Regardless of the industry, the use of private customer data, such as the size of the laundry and the age of children in the secret scheme, is convoluted and cannot be allowed.”
Safety Weapons Owners have been working since 2019 Organization for Weapons Preventing Weapons HiffordsThe co -established Gabi Gifords, the Arizona legislator who had an attempt at the assassination in 2011. It has sections in nine states and consist of weapons and supporters of the second amendment, who believe in what they call “common sense” to reduce the mortality associated with weapons as closed locks and improve snacks for the purchase of fire weapons.
A Atf Acknowledged receipt of the letter but had no other comment. A FBI. Ftc And NSSF did not answer the questions and requests of propublica.
Earlier, NSSF defended its data collection, saying that “it was always legitimate and in the conditions of any individual manufacturer, company, broker or other subject.” The organization presents thousands of firearms and ammunition, distributors and sellers, as well as publishers and shootings. The National Infantry Association, although not so well known as the main lobby for weapons owners, is respected and affected by business, political and rights.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Georgia, said Propublica that he agreed with Smith’s call for the investigation. Last November Blmental, then Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee in particular, asked in NSSF details The companies that made information in the trading group database, the type of customer details that have been shared and the data is used. The trading group did not answer the senator’s questions.
“Anxious, hidden NSSF data collection causes serious security and privacy problems,” Blumenthal said. “And the American people deserve answers.”
It is unclear how successful the investigation request will be under Trump’s administration, especially given the last political support of the NSSF president.
Investigation PROPUBLICA At least 10 enterprises of the industry industry, including Glock, Smith & Wesson and Remington, which provided hundreds of thousands, addresses and other private data – without knowledge and consent of customers – in the NSSF, which then introduced details into what will become a mass base. The database was used to rally the electoral support of weapons owners for preferred industry candidates, which are painful in the White House and Congress.
Experts in particular reported propublica that companies shared with NSSF may violate federal and state bans against deceptive and unfair business practice. According to federal law, companies must fulfill their own privacy policy and be clear about how they will use consumer information, experts said in particular.
The Propublica review on dozens of warranty cards from those who create weapons found that none of them told the buyers that their data would be used for political purposes. (Most companies named in NSSF documents refused to comment or did not respond to PROPULICA. One refused to discuss customer data, and the new maternal company said another has no evidence of NSSF data.)
In 2016, as part of the submission to Donald Trump, for the first time, the president was elected and helped by the Republicans to keep the Senate, NSSF Worked with a consultant Cambridge Analytica to turbocate the information she had about potential voters. Cambridge matched the people in the database with 5,000 additional facts he attracted from other sources. A Details were far away. Along with the income, debt and religious affiliation, the potential voters learned whether the work of the artist Thomas Kincodes liked, and whether women who had acquired underwear were purchased, plus size or miniature.
PROPUBLICA received a part of the NSSF database containing names, addresses and other information thousands. PROPUBLICA addressed up to 6,000 people on this list. Almost everyone who answered, including weapons owners, expressed outrage, surprise or disappointment that they were in the database.
In his letter seeking the investigation, Smith noted that the new director of the FBI patel spoke in favor of protecting the rights of weapons owners.
“Probably,” Smith wrote, “the FBI understands the importance of providing any organization and a state agency that supports the secret database of firearms and weapons owners. Because a lot of high -profile hack and data leaks, private data can be easily incorrect and operated for minor purposes.
Smith, 69-year-old retired JP Morgan Bank and registered by Republicans, said Propublica that the love of weapons began at a teens when his father bought him a rifle rifle for bird hunting. Over the years, the fascination has intensified, and Smith began to greatly collect weapons in response to political efforts to restrict weapons.
“Every time I heard Nancy Pelosi didn’t like something, I felt that I needed,” Smith said.
But he joined Gipardo in 2020 after increasing with extremism in the circles of weapons. Most recently, he said, an attempt at the government’s efficiency seize Large sums of Confidential data of citizens The Social Security and IRS administration inspired his government’s actions. (DEGE representatives did not respond to a comment request.)
“The initial disclosure of information on the National Foundation” Shooting “was the bell of alarm. But now it is a fire in four forces,” Smith said. “We must have some privacy in our lives, and apparently NSSF decided that I don’t need it. And the rain really thinks I don’t mean.”
