I'll tell you exactly what happens when you retire or close shop like Stan did. You send your bound books to the ATF and the put them in one of the many semi-trailers they and someday when they catch they hope to put those records on microfiche. I believe are somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 years behind give or take. You can not search Microfiche in its normal format and most records are hand written.

In Alaska(Walter Earl's shop I believe) The ATF agents wanted to take his books from his shop and make copies. He fought them and I think he won.

In my shop my books had pictures taken of them.

Is the back ground check anywhere near perfect? Heck no. I still do not see why we should abandon it. We should improve it.

If you think you can prove the ATF has a searchable gun data base you should fully pursue it. You could become a rich man. Would be the biggest story in years.....only true in your dreams though. What you fail to understand is a whole bunch of the ATF and other Federal agents are very conservative. They would never keep something like that quiet. I did some contract work at the US Marshall's office in Cheyenne in the 90's. Those guys had pictures of Clinton, who was the President at the time, on the wall with a target super imposed on his face. It would impossible to pull that off at the ATF. I don't love those guys but I have to work with them. They are just people and I find if you treat them with some respect they are fine. All business but very professional and just doing a job for the most part. I'm sure some have an axe to grind but I have not encountered that as of yet.

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