ATF Gun Registry

[foz1359]

In reading recent articles about the Biden administration seeking creative means and methods to monitor transactions I am curious about Bayou Shooters policy for sharing our transaction information, feedback posts, etc.

Does Bayou Shooter share this information with 3rd parties?

The BayouShooter.com home page welcome message reads thusly, "...As such, you have no freedom of speech nor any other Constitutionally protected rights."

If anyone knows, please chime in. And for those of you who DON'T know, and something in your head is telling you to post stupidity like, "well if you don't have anything to hide then..." please hit yourself in the head with a shop hammer.

 

[Magdump]

No expectation of privacy, even the PM’s. Don’t ask me how I know that

 

[Bigchillin83]

No expectation of privacy, even the PM’s. Don’t ask me how I know that

I agree… don’t ask me either… but they know a lot more than you think, and have access to a lot, some are active members, and admin has helped with info, and is justified and rightfully so!! And a lot of active LE

 

[KDerekT83]

Jeez. The one forum I thought I had some privacy with. Especially being around like minded people.

 

[southerncanuck]

Puritanize is the only one who can actually answer this question.

Educated guess though: Shooter doesn’t sell any of the transaction info, because there’s nothing to sell… there aren’t any transactions done on the website. It’s just a social media platform where people can connect if they choose to.

 

[lesgeaux]

privacy can be found in the “Cone of Silence.”

 

[machinedrummer]

I would think now most forms are filled out on a computer there is no way to remain private. Online sales is a direct line to the buyer also.

 

[Bigchillin83]

Not that this has happened, but one day me and my wife were stopped while doing cardio about 1mile from the house and 2 atf agents rolled down the window and showed me a pic of myself and asked me to verify that’s who I was, then started to ask me about a gun I may or may not have sold to another bs memeber… that was used in a crime, and showed me pics of several other bs members in question, also a memeber who had been buying that wasn’t legally able to buy… there was help from admin and other bs members, but because of the situation I would expect nothing less and assisted in anyway possible also….. soooo they know…. Ohhh they know lol, well if that did happen then yea they do know I mean

 

[Bigchillin83]

But as far as “selling info” no I would think not… but if legislation is passed for mandatory info release the hands are kinda tied

 

[KDerekT83]

Good to know. So ATF is legitimately monitoring this and likely other forums. I suspected, but wasn't sure

 

[Bigchillin83]

They were very professional if that’s such a thing, showed me a picture of the gun used and picture of the other members/usernames and very clearly said we don’t wanna know about anything else you have or any of your class three items, and don’t want to come inside will wait outside etc…. So that was pretty cool

 

[foz1359]

Community LEO and folks (like me) with a genuine interest in preserving the foundation of the country are likely quite active in here. For that, I am thankful. But heavy handed, politically directed agencies "on the hunt" would surely find this site's content quite easy to parse.

 

[MOTOR51]

Good to know. So ATF is legitimately monitoring this and likely other forums. I suspected, but wasn't sure

How did you gather that out of anything posted?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[KDerekT83]

That little story that "didn't happen", bigchillin posted.

 

[davidd]

My question is, if this did happen, did Bigchillin buy this firearm from someone on the forum (without a BOS, maybe?), and then sell it to someone else? If so, they simply traced the firearm to the original purchaser who said, "I sold it to this dude on BayouShooter and don't remember his name, contact BS to see who he is." That's a little more reasonable than: Bigchillin was the original purchaser, sold the firearm on BayouShooter, and somehow the ATF knew he sold it on BayouShooter.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[KDerekT83]

Lol.. all I know is what we were told. Apparently it never happened anyway so..

 

[AustinBR]

I'm not the forum owner, but I can answer your question. We don't sell or share any user information whatsoever.

We will corporate with any law enforcement agency to the best of our ability if asked. I think we've made it very clear that we are very pro-LE, multiple times. One of our moderators is also a LEO.

Regarding PMs - I'm not sure how the new forum software is setup, but I would imagine that it's like the old software where PMs are not easily accessible by site staff. The only way to access them that I'm aware of would be to (1) change a user's password and log-in to their account or (2) access them using the SQL database.

Being that we don't have access to passwords, option 1 would lock the user out of the account. I imagine it could be used for an urgent request from LEO or a court, if necessary.

Option 2 is something that the site owner would have to pursue but is also doable.

With all of that being said, I'm not aware of any instances of the forum being asked to share details with any LE since I've been an admin (~8 years).

I do know that some folks have been arrested as a result of what they've posted on the board before, but that's only due to them being idiots and detectives not being dumb. For example - if you're a felon on probation and you post your cell phone number with a pistol you have for sale, anyone can Google the cell #, find the post, and see that you're possessing a firearm that you intend on selling. It's a pretty cut and dry case after that.

I'm not familiar with what was discussed above with regards to the ATF. I do know that we have some ATF folks on here as users, and I met one guy six or so years ago who had a few questions in a professional capacity, but I wasn't able to help. Speculating here, but it's not too hard to figure out who bought guns with the (old) feedback system.

For example, you can look at someone's profile, see their transaction history, and then PM them and ask for contact info from a person they've sold something to in the past. More often than not, they'll share it.

 

[AustinBR]

My question is, if this did happen, did Bigchillin buy this firearm from someone on the forum (without a BOS, maybe?), and then sell it to someone else? If so, they simply traced the firearm to the original purchaser who said, "I sold it to this dude on BayouShooter and don't remember his name, contact BS to see who he is." That's a little more reasonable than: Bigchillin was the original purchaser, sold the firearm on BayouShooter, and somehow the ATF knew he sold it on BayouShooter.

Inquiring minds want to know.

The ATF doesn't have access to PMs and we haven't provided any.

If this scenario happened as described above, it's likely they just followed the trail of posts on the internet and connected some dots.

 

[foz1359]

Appreciate the information and in keeping with the theme of the day it's a good time for me to thank you AustinBR, for being an admin and keeping the lights on for us.

 

[Nail Gun]

I don’t remember the details nor do I care enough to dig them up. IIRC there was a incident a few years back where a (then) LEO was buying new firearms at a discount and flipping them for a profit. He was listing them in the classifieds here.

I think a warrant was issued for the sites server and/or records. The whole thing caused a pretty big kerfuffle and led to new rules in the classifieds.

So yeah, there aren’t any secrets here.