Reply #24: Sorry for the delay in responding

[Terran]

The primary purpose of maintaining such records would be to monitor compliance by the gun dealers, not keep tabs on citizens. Governments have a compelling interest in seeing that gun dealers comply with existing law, and there are surely some who don't 100% of the time. I understand your objection to having such a record exist, but I think the parallel with pharmacies is very appropriate. And also note that it's the gun dealers themselves who maintain the records individually, not any government agency. The data is not there in any central database any time some bureaucrat wants to nose around in it. If such a system were put in place, I would have no problem providing the same kind of confidentiality protections that medical records currently enjoy. Pharmacy records are closely guarded from all except law enforcement.

Pharmacies maintain very private and detailed information about people on an ongoing basis--information that is vastly more sensitive than whether you own a gun or not--and law enforcement (LE) agencies have the right to see that information in the course of their legitimate duties, but *only* in the course of those duties. If LE had an investigation of a crime involving a person and their ownership of a gun, I don't see a problem with LE having access to such records. Also, such records would be expunged after a period--three years, two years, something similar to pharmacies; that varies from state to state, with a federal minimum (I forget now how long that is, it's DEA regulations).

I think this is a reasonable accommodation that potentially would assist LE and discourage *some* illegal activity by gun dealers. I believe that lots of activities that are generally considered "rights" are subject to such limited forms of record-keeping--marriage, for example.

Dirk