The Outdoor Wire has confirmed from confidential sources that the "transition team" for the Democratic candidate has already begun looking into the current approval system for firearms transactions. It seems the digital recordkeeping approval recently granted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has piqued their curiosity. With a virtual Form 4473 in existence, we should be on the lookout for a new record-keeping initiative that will "simplify" the hassles of off-site digital record storage by allowing FFLs to, say, store the information on secure governmental servers. Of course, the government will never access the information.
http://www.downrange.tv/artman2/publish ... /339.shtml
On Monday, I reported that The Shooting Wire had confirmed through confidential sources that members of a presidential transition team had visited the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There, the team seemed especially interested in the new e-4473, the new electronic recordkeeping system approved earlier this year that will, when fully implemented, allow dealers to keep their records electronically rather in the current paper system.
The e-system is completely voluntary, and at the time it received BAFE approval, we felt it represented a simplification in a process that has gotten many small gun shop owners crosswise with the ATF. In the vast majority of those cases, the errors were in essence paperwork goofs. An e-system that would make it simpler to administer the system -and record keeping - seemed to be a good idea.
Now, after further investigation, it may be that the presumption of some diabolically-forward looking plot to suborn the e-records was, well, presumptive. We've been assured that the visits to federal agencies are, in fact, part of the current administration's efforts to assure a peaceful and orderly transition of power - to whichever party wins the election next Tuesday.
