QOTD — The NRA Builds a Database of Millions of Gun Owners, Where’s The Outrage?
Buzzfeed has reported on the NRA’s efforts to build a database of possibly tens of millions of gun owners from data they were able to obtain from states on gun and hunting permit owners. Interesting, yes? This is the same NRA that manufactures its outrage over the press publishing the publicly available list of people with gun permits. The NRA specifically fundraises off of manufactured fear that the government is creating lists of gun owners in order to seize those guns, or some such. As if the government didn’t outgun these gun owners anyway. But here is the NRA specifically building the database it accuses the government of trying to do — so where *is* all of the conservative outrage on this data collection effort that is being done without the permission of those gun or hunting permit owners?
The National Rifle Association has rallied gun owners — and raised tens of millions of dollars — campaigning against the threat of a national database of firearms or their owners.
But in fact, the sort of vast, secret database the NRA often warns of already exists, despite having been assembled largely without the knowledge or consent of gun owners. It is housed in the Virginia offices of the NRA itself. The country’s largest privately held database of current, former, and prospective gun owners is one of the powerful lobby’s secret weapons, expanding its influence well beyond its estimated 3 million members and bolstering its political supremacy.
That database has been built through years of acquiring gun permit registration lists from state and county offices, gathering names of new owners from the thousands of gun safety classes taught by NRA-certified instructors and by buying lists of attendees of gun shows, subscribers to gun magazines, and more, BuzzFeed has learned.
The result: a big data powerhouse that deploys the same high-tech tactics all year round that the vaunted Obama campaign used to win two presidential elections.
So — does this mean that the NSA has this list now? Just sayin’…..
OK cassandra, since this has been up here now for several hours and nobody has bitten (we all know what happens in “gun” threads), I will (partly because I was going to write a post about this and didn’t have the time, so responding is easier).
I have no real outrage here, for three reasons (not necessarily in order)
1. We live in the age of data mining; I think it is a given that lobbying groups, political parties, large corporations, and the government all engage in this behavior–often while decrying it in others. Yes, I think when you read about the NRA what strikes me is how effectively they were doing data mining before there were computer programs to do it for them, but to be honest I would have always assumed that they probably had a gigantic database of gun owners and guns. So I guess here you can color me surprised that this is news.
2. I think it is a false equivalence to compare their gun lists to potential gun lists generated by government agencies for law enforcement purposes. The only thing that the NRA uses these lists for would be either to solicit for money or conduct in-house research. The NRA possesses no ability to track gun sales and no power to confiscate weapons; the government (whether in practice it does so or not) has that power, so it’s different.
3. Any outrage over privacy violations would also seem to be overblown. You signed up for an NRA gun safety class and they kept your info? Puh-lees. You sign up for anything today and your info is routinely kept for marketing purposes. I don’t agree with the NRA doing it any more than I agree with my insurance company doing it, my employer doing it, my bank doing it, credit monitoring services doing it, ad infinitum ad nauseum. But it’s not news, and it’s certainly not outrage worthy.
Ironically, what this news story DOES tell me (and I’m going to hate myself later for pointing this out) is that the government already has a massive gun ownership database somewhere because with quiet persistence it is so easy to compile. If the government doesn’t already have it, it’s only because the government wasn’t interested in acquiring it to date. And if the government suddenly wants it, at least 95% of the privately owned weapons in the country could be accurately identified as to owner within a few months. (Of course that would still leave about 15 million unaccounted for.)
So that’s a long way around to say that the NRA’s interests are pretty much the NRA and that privacy issues don’t matter unless it is the government collecting up your data.
You sign up for anything today and your info is routinely kept for marketing purposes.
For most of these instances, you sign away rights to data with signing up for the service or whatever. I’m not sure that people who are buying antique guns agreed to anything that grants the NRA access to their information.
You don’t get it. Joining the NRA is voluntary. Government registration would not be.
And, frankly, when every citizen is spied upon, why should they not be paranoid?
But joining the NRA database isn’t voluntary, either, which is the only thing in question here.
cassandra
But joining the NRA database isn’t voluntary, either, which is the only thing in question here.
Nor is joining the VISA database, nor the Acme database, nor the State Farm database (they routinely download vehicle crash information to look for unreported crashes), nor … well, hell, almost anything.
Don’t get me wrong: I am no fan of the NRA, but there isn’t a story here.
The difference between Visa or any other similar entity is that you purchase goods or services from them. The NRA provides neither.
Andy
Certainly you purchase goods and services via the NRA–guns safety classes, books, magazines, conferences, memberships.
And with equal certainty other retailers gather information about those who are not currently their customers.
Nor is joining the VISA database, nor the Acme database, nor the State Farm database
Actually, it is. If you don’t have a VISA or the Acme card or ask State Farm to cover you, then they don’t have the opportunity to track you and collect your data. If you signup for a VISA or for an ACME store card, you specifically give them permission to collect certain data on you. And if you call State Farm to get a quote on some coverage, you are going to give them permission to look at you driving record.
Yes cassandra that’s all true–but State Farm goes to the DMV of different states and to car dealers to purchase names of people who have bought certain types of cars; State Farm purchases prospect lists for its loans.
Is your argument truly that no other corporation, foundation, company, or lobbying group routinely uses data mining without the consent of people being placed on a list?
CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange)
CLUE is a claims-information report generated by LexisNexis. The report generally contains up to seven years of personal-auto and personal-property claims history. An insurer doesn’t pull a CLUE report for everyone, but they can.
The FCRA entitles you to a free copy of your CLUE report. To request a copy, contact:
LexisNexis, Consumer Center, Request your personal report online (www.lexisnexis.com) or Call 888-497-0011
A public service message for those who were not aware of the pervasive data collection by business.
Is your argument truly that no other corporation, foundation, company, or lobbying group routinely uses data mining without the consent of people being placed on a list?
Nope. Just that the examples you used get your permission (or a fig leaf semblance of such) to collect your data. The DMV, for example doesn’t get your permission to sell that data, yet no one is screaming about the government intrusion that represents. Yet here is the NRA building its secret database using data that I’m certain no one asked permission from users for. Like hunting licences. An organization that is manufacturing the usual fear and loathing to claim that the government wants a database of gun owners to take them away, but extensively uses government data that those governments don’t have permission to share is working its hypocrisy at multiple levels. Visa and Acme and State Farm aren’t trying to sell you its stuff based on some ginned up government overreach BS while specifically relying on government overreach.
Let’s apply the same stupid logic liberals do about abortion, “it is settled law”. So is gun ownership, shut up about the NRA.