Gun owners panel calls for investigation into the secret sharing of customer data in the gun industry

In making a request, gun owners cite a ProPublica survey that details how the National Shooting Sports Foundation transferred sensitive personal information from gun buyers to political agents while simultaneously showing themselves as a fierce advocate of gun owner’s privacy. The letter – sent to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Guns and Explosives last week, a secret program called the NSSF, which spans nearly two decades of secret program.

“The privacy of gun owners is not a partisan or ideological issue,” wrote Malcolm Smith, a gun owner for the security member. “No matter how the industry utilizes the customer’s private data, such as the size of its underwear and the age of children in secret plans, is reprehensible and cannot be allowed.”

Since 2019, gun violence prevention group Giffords, which operates gun safety owners, has been co-founded by Gabby Giffords, an Arizona lawmaker who survived in 2011 and was assassinated in 2011. This chapter has chapters in nine states. The chapter is composed of gun owners and gun hosts in nine states and encountered “common measures” in guns to reduce guns, to reduce guns, to reduce guns. Buy.

The ATF acknowledged receiving the letter, but had no other comments. FBI, FTC and NSSF did not answer ProPublica's questions and requests for comment.

The NSSF has previously defended its data collection, saying that its “activity” is and is always fully legal and is legal under the terms and conditions of any individual manufacturer, company, data broker or other entity. “The organization represents thousands of gun and ammunition manufacturers, distributors and retailers, as well as publishers and shooting ranges. The NSSF, while not as well known as the National Rifle Association, is respected and influenced in the commercial, political and gun rights communities.

D-Conn. Senator Richard Blumenthal told ProPublica that he agreed with Smith's call for an investigation. Last November, then-Chairman of the Senate Privacy Subcommittee, Blumenthal, asked the NSSF to provide details about companies that provide information to the trading group database, namely the type of customer details shared and whether the data is still in use. The trade panel did not answer the senator's questions.

“NSSF's disturbing secret data collection has caused serious security and privacy issues,” Blumenthal said. “The American people deserve the answer.”

It is unclear how any investigation demands from the Trump administration have succeeded, especially given the NSSF’s past political support for the president.

ProPublica's investigation identified at least 10 gun industry businesses including Glock, Smith & Wesson and Remington, which handed over thousands of names, addresses and other private data (without customer knowledge or consent) to the NSSF, and then entered the details into the details that would become a large database. The database is used to gather gun owners’ election support for the industry’s preferred candidate, running for the White House and Congress.

Privacy experts told ProPublica that companies that share information with the NSSF may violate federal and state banning fraudulent and unfair business practices. Privacy experts say companies must abide by their own privacy policies and be clear about how they will use consumer information under federal law.

ProPublica's review of dozens of warranty cards from these gun manufacturers found that none of them told buyers that their details would be used for political purposes. (Most companies named in the NSSF file declined to comment or responded to ProPublica. One refused to share customer data, while another new parent company said it had no evidence that data sharing evidence with NSSF was not previously owned.)

In 2016, as part of making Donald Trump elect the president for the first time and helping Republicans maintain the Senate, the NSSF worked with consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to turbocharge information from potential voters. Cambridge matched people in the database 5,000 facts about them being proposed from other sources. The details are far away. Analysts with potential voter income, debt and religion also learn whether they like the work of painter Thomas Kinkade, and whether women buy underwear for larger sizes or smaller.

ProPublica obtained a portion of the NSSF database, which contains the names, addresses and other information of thousands of people. ProPublica contacted 6,000 people on the list. Almost everyone who responded, including gun owners, expressed anger, surprise or disappointment about learning in the database.

In a letter seeking investigation, Smith pointed out that the FBI's new director Kash Patel expressed favors protecting the privacy of gun owners.

“Of course, of course, the FBI understands the importance of ensuring no organization or government agency maintains a secret database of gun customers and gun owners. As many high-profile hacking and data breaches have shown, private data can be easily used for evil purposes.

Smith, a 69-year-old retired executive of JP Morgan Bank and registered Republican, started his love for Propublica with a teenage gun when his father bought him a Remington rifle to hunt birds. Passion has intensified over the years, and Smith began collecting guns in large quantities in response to political efforts to limit gun access.

“Whenever I hear Nancy Pelosi doesn't like something, I feel like I have to have it,” Smith said.

But he joined Gifford in 2020 after feeling uncomfortable with extremism in the gun rights circle. He said recently, the Department of Efficiency has tried to obtain a large amount of confidential citizen data from the Social Security Agency, and the IRS has inspired his government lawsuit. (Doge officials did not respond to requests for comment.)

“The initial disclosure about the National Shooting Sports Foundation was a wake-up call. But now it's four fires,” Smith said. “We should have some kind of privacy in our lives, and obviously the NSSF decided I didn't have to have it.”