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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2z3UF0r:Want to Know How the Cops Actually Trace a Gun?:
lookninjas:
criticalrolequotesandstuff:
Oh. My. God.
Did you know that when a gun is used in a crime and cops want to trace it, people have to look through microfilm to find the owner, because it’s illegal to have a searchable database of that information?
Seriously. The NRA managed to get a law passed that makes it illegal. These people have to search by hand. 1,200 traces a day. By hand.
Cops assume they just type it into a search engine, because, like, obviously? We have all this technology that puts information at our finger tips. But not who owns the gun that killed that little girl. That you have to search through microfilm or boxes of files for.
I feel sick.
If you’re American and could ever possibly one day vote, please take the time to read this and understand how absurd it it. I cannot for a moment believe this is what reasonable Americans would choose if they understood what it actually is.
And, whoever you are, please share this, so it gets in front of more eyeballs.
As someone who works at a store that sells firearms, I want to make something really clear here: It isn’t just that they’re looking through microfilm. It’s that the microfilm is being made from something called an acquisition/disposition log, which is the store’s record of all guns arriving at the store and where all of those guns go. Depending on the store and who owns it, whether they’re corporate or independent, those A/D logs may be immaculate – entered into a computer, all information typed in with care, every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed. They may be messy, hand-written, hodge-podged affairs. They may be somewhere in between. All guns are supposed to be logged in and logged out promptly, but I can say from experience that not every store does it every time. If a manager isn’t sure how to do it and/or doesn’t feel like going to the hassle (and it’s a fucking hassle, let me tell you), a gun might exist in legal limbo for a few days, still technically ours but already in someone else’s hands.
And the ATF only gets their hands on our A/D logs when we go out of business. Until then, all gun traces for guns sold at my store are relying on me and my wall of three-ring binders. If something happened to my store – State of Michigan requires handgun registration, but every shotgun, every rifle, even the AK-styles and the AR-styles with the big fuckoff banana clips that shoot 30 rounds of .308, all of those records would be gone like that.
And all the record-keeping I do? It’s not for shit if the buyer then proceeds to sell their gun to a friend. Or their new best friend from Craigslist. Or the sketchy dude in the Big Boy parking lot. All of which is still legal. No background checks. Nada. The gun is now out of the system.
Did I mention that we’re assuming a store that is trying to follow the law? And not a store run by someone who is (and plenty are) still bitter about this whole 4473 form thing, and this whole background check thing, and government can’t tell me how to run my store?
Do you know how many times I’ve seen an ATF audit in the ten years that I’ve worked for my company? That they’ve come and actually checked on my books to make sure I’m doing shit right?
0.
I’ve never seen it. I mean, we do everything we can to keep our forms 100% spot-on, but for all ATF knows, I’m wiping my ass with them, because they don’t have the manpower to come check.
We need better gun laws. I say this not as a representative of the store that I work for (which I will not name for obvious reasons) but for myself as a human being and as a human being who periodically does find herself selling firearms (and/or refusing to sell firearms, which is a whole other ballgame but that’s another story). We especially need better gun laws as pertains to the keeping of firearm records. We literally have the most inconvenient method possible that does not involve engraving on a stone slab.
I have a wall of binders. Sometimes, that’s enough. But don’t you still think there should be more than that, for the times that it’s not?
lookninjas:
criticalrolequotesandstuff:
Oh. My. God.
Did you know that when a gun is used in a crime and cops want to trace it, people have to look through microfilm to find the owner, because it’s illegal to have a searchable database of that information?
Seriously. The NRA managed to get a law passed that makes it illegal. These people have to search by hand. 1,200 traces a day. By hand.
Cops assume they just type it into a search engine, because, like, obviously? We have all this technology that puts information at our finger tips. But not who owns the gun that killed that little girl. That you have to search through microfilm or boxes of files for.
I feel sick.
If you’re American and could ever possibly one day vote, please take the time to read this and understand how absurd it it. I cannot for a moment believe this is what reasonable Americans would choose if they understood what it actually is.
And, whoever you are, please share this, so it gets in front of more eyeballs.
As someone who works at a store that sells firearms, I want to make something really clear here: It isn’t just that they’re looking through microfilm. It’s that the microfilm is being made from something called an acquisition/disposition log, which is the store’s record of all guns arriving at the store and where all of those guns go. Depending on the store and who owns it, whether they’re corporate or independent, those A/D logs may be immaculate – entered into a computer, all information typed in with care, every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed. They may be messy, hand-written, hodge-podged affairs. They may be somewhere in between. All guns are supposed to be logged in and logged out promptly, but I can say from experience that not every store does it every time. If a manager isn’t sure how to do it and/or doesn’t feel like going to the hassle (and it’s a fucking hassle, let me tell you), a gun might exist in legal limbo for a few days, still technically ours but already in someone else’s hands.
And the ATF only gets their hands on our A/D logs when we go out of business. Until then, all gun traces for guns sold at my store are relying on me and my wall of three-ring binders. If something happened to my store – State of Michigan requires handgun registration, but every shotgun, every rifle, even the AK-styles and the AR-styles with the big fuckoff banana clips that shoot 30 rounds of .308, all of those records would be gone like that.
And all the record-keeping I do? It’s not for shit if the buyer then proceeds to sell their gun to a friend. Or their new best friend from Craigslist. Or the sketchy dude in the Big Boy parking lot. All of which is still legal. No background checks. Nada. The gun is now out of the system.
Did I mention that we’re assuming a store that is trying to follow the law? And not a store run by someone who is (and plenty are) still bitter about this whole 4473 form thing, and this whole background check thing, and government can’t tell me how to run my store?
Do you know how many times I’ve seen an ATF audit in the ten years that I’ve worked for my company? That they’ve come and actually checked on my books to make sure I’m doing shit right?
0.
I’ve never seen it. I mean, we do everything we can to keep our forms 100% spot-on, but for all ATF knows, I’m wiping my ass with them, because they don’t have the manpower to come check.
We need better gun laws. I say this not as a representative of the store that I work for (which I will not name for obvious reasons) but for myself as a human being and as a human being who periodically does find herself selling firearms (and/or refusing to sell firearms, which is a whole other ballgame but that’s another story). We especially need better gun laws as pertains to the keeping of firearm records. We literally have the most inconvenient method possible that does not involve engraving on a stone slab.
I have a wall of binders. Sometimes, that’s enough. But don’t you still think there should be more than that, for the times that it’s not?
