“The Eric Holder Gun Registry”: The Plot Thickens in Missouri (Open Thread)

© Miri WTPOTUS April 12, 2013

In early March, Dana Loesch first reported how a Missourian had uncovered some very troubling facts with regard to the way that information about concealed carry permit holders is handled in Missouri (MO).  The citizen went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to have his driver’s license updated with his concealed carry status. There he encountered a clerk who insisted that he provide identifying documents, such as a birth certificate, and allow them to be scanned.  He understood that the scanned images would be transmitted to a third-party vendor as well as to the the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Concerned that the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR), which oversees the DMV, is compiling a “backdoor gun registry,” in cahoots with the DHS, the citizen filed a lawsuit, supported by MO Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who launched an investigation.  Kinder pointed out that

state laws prohibit the department from retaining and collecting these types of documents and from complying with … the [federal] Real ID Act.

Subsequently, Loesch reported that if MO Governor Jay Nixon knew about this potentially illegal behavior, it could be cause for impeachment.  However, it’s been difficult to uncover the truth:

“We’re trying to get answers from the Governor and he’s stonewalling us,” Kinder said, “Missourians have a right to know where this policy came from.”

… The Department of Revenue issued a statement saying its operations are “consistent with the protocols of state law.”

In their humble opinion, no doubt.  “Consistent with the protocols.”  Weasel words.  Eventually, subpoenas were issued:

… Missouri state Senator Kurt Schaefer subpoenaed the … Missouri Department of Revenue to produce all documents between the Department of Revenue and any federal agency, including but not limited to, the Department of Homeland Security or FEMA, regarding driver’s license and ID information of Missouri citizens.

Senator Schaefer said … “This is one of the most appalling abuses of privacy rights I have encountered in state government. I can not and will not allow unelected bureaucrats to erode the rights of Missourians.”

The subpoenas were eventually honored:

The Missouri Department of Revenue has complied with a Senate subpoena and delivered thousands of documents relating to new driver’s license procedures.

The Republican-led Senate requested the documents over concerns that license applicants’ personal documents scanned into a state computer system are shared with the federal government or a private company.

Revenue Department officials have denied that they are sharing copies of personal documents, such as concealed weapons endorsements and birth certificates.

The documents were delivered Tuesday to Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia, roughly an hour before the 4 p.m. subpoena deadline.

Senate staff were not amused.  Instead of sending a computer disk containing the information, they chose to send boxes and boxes of paper, making it that much harder for investigators to easily find the evidence that they seek.

Consider how much more time consuming and expensive (for taxpayers) this approach was.  By using this method, they also made it harder to prove that a certain page was or was not included.

Dana Loesch learned later that the DOR and the DHS gather data on more than just concealed carry permit holders: [emphasis added to quotes]

According to Sen. Schaefer, not only is the Missouri Department of Revenue colluding with the Department of Homeland Security and other third parties to illegally share Missourians’ conceal carry information, the DOR is also gathering and storing biometric data on every Missourian who gets a license. Schaefer notes that the collection of biometric data was never discussed with Missouri lawmakers and that it was discovered quite by accident when suspicious Missourians questioned why the DOR would want their marriage licenses and a multitude of other information simply to renew their conceal carry permits. When Schaefer confronted the DOR, they twice lied to the senator, claiming that the DHS grant money was for things like “hole punchers.” Schaefer later learned the DHS grant money was actually used towards items like facial recognition hardware and software. It’s not only backdoor gun registration, but a massive invasion of privacy as well.

Today we learn that the situation is getting exponentially worse:

The Missouri Highway Patrol admitted on Thursday that it released the names of more than 163,000 Missourians who have concealed weapons permits to a federal agent twice in the past two years. …

“I’m very concerned that this may be a back-door attempt to create the Eric Holder gun registry,” said House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, referring to the U.S. attorney general. …

Missouri Highway Patrol Col. Ron Replogle told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday that a Social Security Administration [SSA] agent based in St. Louis wanted the concealed-carry permit information for an investigation into disability fraud related to mental illness claims.

The list of permit holders was going to be compared with a list of Social Security recipients to see whether anyone who had met the mental health qualifications for a concealed carry permit had also sought benefits for a mental illness. …

[T]the harm is that, with reckless abandon, what is a private database in the state of Missouri with private information … was given out on discs with apparently not even a written request,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia. “That’s the issue.” …

Without the ongoing investigation into the licenses and the Department of Revenue’s handling of private information, it’s unlikely that lawmakers would have stumbled upon the details of the release of the concealed carry lists, he said. …

 After hours of inquiry, with questions often repeated in varying ways, Schaefer latched onto the issue of whether concealed carry lists had ever been created and shared outside of the new system. After some vague answers, officials eventually admitted Wednesday night that the Department of Revenue had given concealed carry lists to the state Highway Patrol.

Later in the evening, they returned to say that Highway Patrol handed the information over to a federal agent. …

The information was handed over without a warrant or even a written request for the data. The information was not specific to an individual under investigation or even suspicion.  The federal agent asked for, and received, the entire list of MO concealed carry permit holders.

If they’re to be believed, Social Security planned to compare the list against a list of people who applied for or collected disability based upon mental illness. If they’re to be believed, they weren’t able to read the list because the data was encrypted.  So we’re supposed to believe that the SSA and the DHS never got the names, although it wasn’t for lack of trying.  Do you believe them?  I don’t.

One wonders if this process is in response to Obama’s executive orders, which resulted from his vow to do whatever he could as president to circumvent Congress on gun control.

So they’re simply data mining. Trolling through lists compiled illegally from state databases, using the information for what purpose?  To try to further infringe upon someone’s Second Amendment rights?  To make a list of “illegal” guns to be confiscated?

Glenn Beck said on radio this week that anyone who’s ever taken a drug prescribed for psychiatric or psychological purposes will be at risk of losing his or her right to keep and bear arms. Is this far fetched?  I think not.  As Beck noted, a vast majority of Americans, unfortunately, take or have taken mind- or mood-altering drugs.  Consider the number of children who are prescribed drugs for ADHD or ODD.  Or autism, which is in the news with regard to Adam Lanza, the alleged Newtown/Sandy Hook shooter.  Who will decide what constitutes mental illness?  Who will decide what diagnoses preclude citizens from owning guns?  What is our federal government up to?  Who will rein them in?

This is a scattershot approach to backdoor gun control.  Use every means at your disposal, by any means necessary.  Keep them rocked back on their heels.  Come at them from all sides.  If you can dupe lower level state employees into complying, then take the data and hope that state officials don’t find out. If they do find out, then stonewall, prevaricate, spin, and cover up with unbelievable scenarios.  They may not get a list of ALL gun owners, but they can compile one that has alarming accuracy, considering all the potential sources of information.

Let’s not forget that Social Security agents carry weapons, too, and that this news comes on the heels of reports that the Internal Revenue Service claims the right to read all of our email, text messages, and other electronic communications, such as posts on social media, without a warrant, in order to catch potential tax scofflaws.  (They’d do well to start looking in the Barack Obama administration.)

So Obama’s government, which now shares information across departments, but especially with DHS, uses the excuse of investigating benefit fraud or possible criminal activity to get around state privacy laws.  In so doing, they can also compile that backdoor “Eric Holder Gun Registry”.

Somehow, the feds have managed to inveigle state agencies into going along with their schemes.  State employees in MO blithely handed over biometric and identifying documentation out of state databases that were compiled for state reasons and against MO law.  Has this happened in other states, too,  unbeknownst to their officials?

When Obamacare computerized medical records are realized, imagine how much more information Big Brother will have available for his data miners to troll,

all to keep an eye on and control you.
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