A group that represents firearms owners has asked three federal agencies to investigate how the main lobbying group of the weapons secretly used the intimate details of weapons buyers for political purposes.
When making the application, arms owners for security He cited a propublic investigation That detailed how the National Shooting Sports Foundation He found confidential personal information about weapons buyers to political operations while presenting ITELF as a fierce defender of the privacy of firearms owners. The letter – Sent last week to the FBI, the Federal Commerce Commission and the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, called the Secret Program of the NSSF that covered almost two decades “bad”.
“The privacy of arms owners is not a partisan or ideological problem,” said Malcolm Smith, a Arms owners for security Member. “The industry does not matter, exploiting client’s private data such as their underwear size and the ages of children in a secret scheme is representable and cannot be allowed.”
Security arms owners have been operated since 2019 by the Armed Violence Prevention Organization Giffordswho was co -founded by Gabby Giffords, the Arizona legislator who survived an attempt to murder in 2011. He has chapters in nine states and consists of owners of weapons and supporters of the second amendment that they believe in the measures of survey of arms to reduce the improved measures of the background verifications in the purchases of firearms.
He ATF Recognize receiving the letter but I had no other comment. He FBI” FTC And NSSF did not answer the questions and requests for propublicic comments.
The NSSF previously defended its data collection, saying that “the activities are, and have always been, completely legal and within the terms and conditions of any individual manufacturer, company, data corridor, another entity.” The organization repeats thousands of firearms and manufacturers of ammunition, distributors and retailers, together with editors and shooting ranges. While it is not as well known as the main lobbyist of people with firearms, the National Rifles Association, the NSSF is respected and influential in business, political and weapon rights communities.
Senator Richard Blucenthal, D-Conn., Told PROPUBLICA that he agreed with Smith’s call for an investigation. Last November, Blumenthal, then president of a subcommittee of the Senate on privacy, The NSSF asked for more details In companies that contributed information to the commercial group database, the type of client details that were shared and if the data is still being used. The commercial group did not answer the senator’s questions.
“The disturbing and covert data collection of the NSSF raises serious security and privacy,” said Blumenthal. “And the American people deserve answers.”
It is not clear how successful any investigation request will be under the Trump administration, especially given the political support of the NSF for the president.
Propublicic research They identified at least 10 businesses in the weapons industry, including Gock, Smith & Wesson and Remington, which delivered around hundreds of thousands of names, addresses and other private data, without knowledge or consent of the client, to the NSSF, what massive data. The database was used to gather the electoral support of arms owners for the preferred candidates of the industry that are running for the White House and Congress.
Privacy experts told Propublic that Company shared information with the NSSF may have violated federal and state prohibitions against deceptive and unfair commercial practices. According to the Federal Law, companies must comply with their own privacy policies and be clear how they will use consumer information, privacy experts said.
A propublic review of guarantee cards of those weapons creators discovered that none of them informed buyers that their details would be used for political purposes. (The majority of the companies named in the NSSF documents declined to comment or did not respond to Propublic. One denied sharing customer data, and the new parent company said that it had no evidence of data exchange with the NSSF under the previous property.)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
In 2016, as part of an impulse for Donald Trump to be elected president for the first time and to help Republicans keep the Senate, the NSSF Worked with consulting Cambridge Analytica turbocarga the information I had about potential voters. Cambridge combined people in the database with 5,000 additional facts on them that he threw from other sources. He The details were long -range. Together with the potential income of voters, debts and religious affiliation, analysts learned if they liked the work of the painter Thomas Kinkade and if the underwear that women had bought was large or small.
Propublic forced a part of the NSSF database that contains the names, addresses and other information of thousands of people. Propublic contacted 6,000 people on the list. Almost all who responded, including arms owners, expressed their outrage, surprise or disappointment for the learning that they were in the database.
In his letter looking for an investigation, Smith said that the new director of the FBI, Kash Patel, has been spoken in favor of protecting the privacy rights of arms owners.
“Surely, then,” Smith wrote, “the FBI understands the importance of ensuring that no governmental organization or agency is a secret database of firearms and arms owners. Like many high profile hacks and data leaks, they have data purposes of Mava.
Smith, a 69 -year -old retired executive from JP Morgan Bank and registered Republican, told Propublic that his love for weapons began as a Toen when his father bought him a Remington rifle for bird hunting. The passion intensified over the years, and Smith began to collect weapons strongly in response to political efforts to restrict access to weapons.
“Every time I listened to Nancy Pelosi, not as something, I felt that I had to have it,” said Smith.
But he joined Giffords in 2020 after bothering himself with extremism in arms rights circles. More recently, he said, the government’s efficiencies department tries grab Great quantities either Confidential citizens data Of the Social Security Administration and the IRS inspired their request for the action of the Government. (Doge officials did not respond to a request for comments).
“The initial revelations about the National Shooting Sports Foundation were an alarm bell. But now this is a four -alarm fire,” said Smith. “We are supposed to have some kind of privacy in our lives, and the NSSF team decided that it did not have to have it. And Real believes that I have no right to it.”
