If you’ve ever wondered why people aren’t fans of the ATF, I have a story for you today.
Of course, even before today’s story, there are tons (literally tons, if you were to measure all of us by collective weight…) of people who dislike the ATF. Our reasons are purely because of what the ATF stands for and what they do as (as far as I can tell) their primary work: gun control.
I am a Second Amendment absolutist which means that I understand that the Second Amendment means that restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms (and that includes the right to make and buy firearms) is something completely outside of the legal rights of the government to interfere with.
Of course, I’m also not looking to find ways for the government to go after me, so my firearms related purchases and activities have stayed within what they won’t shoot at me or jail me for. And I don’t recommend that you go out and put your life on the line to deal with this either. Instead, I recommend working through legal, lobbying, and voting methods to get rid of the ATF and all gun control.
But even if gun control isn’t your big thing, privacy might be, and the ATF just showed us why they shouldn’t have access to information about legal gun owners. Gun Owners of America give us the details:
A Russian ransomware crew called Qilin claimed ATF as a victim last Wednesday. The bureau confirmed it the same day. The agency says the machine that got hit was a standalone system holding information on people ATF was investigating, and that it was not connected to eForms or its other systems. Justice Department officials labeled it a major incident, which is a formal designation that requires them to notify Congress.
Early word from inside ATF is that gun owner records were not taken. We hope that holds. But nobody has verified what the hackers walked away with, and the gang has not shown its hand yet.
Here is the part that should stick with you. ATF sits on files covering roughly a billion guns and gun owners, including paperwork from shops that closed years ago. Every one of those records is a target.
That last sentence is the problem with the ATF having records about gun purchases and ownership. Literally, it makes gun owners the target of hackers and, then, thieves who know what houses to burgle to steal guns.
Anti-2A activists want to make it more difficult for criminals to get their hands on firearms? Then, they should stop trying to collect the names and addresses of owners of firearms which criminals can then access and use to pick their targets for gun thefts.
And as for the ATF, this is just another reason that it should go. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Get rid of the ATF, and leave Americans alone to live their lives.
