*Registration and/or any "paper trail" of any firearm is completely unconstitutional.* While the previous fact has little bearing on the actions of the current administration- it is still a fact. I appreciate this channel bringing light to this topic.
the consequences of gun ownership may turn out to be defending our country from invasion or rogue government coup. think man you need guns "they" can't remove them all from a society so they're still needed for defense. deal with it.
So true! My husband actually just suggested this should be made into a TV series, and I said "with Ethan Hawke as the protagonist" and then I scrolled down and read your comment, haha
Separate and apart from the underlying issue of gun control, this video is extremely well-produced. It is well-shot, thoughtfully edited, funny, beautiful, has excellent sound, and is extremely expressive and really tells its story through its cinematography. Bravo, production team. I’m really impressed.
Archaic by design. Unsearchable by design. Those jpgs can be formatted to be searchable - they just aren't. My jaw dropped open (honestly) when the woman was scrolling through jpgs. "Holy sh!t" keeps going through my head.
Even if they're not formatted nowadays you could run them pretty quickly through an OCR scanner via AWS or something and search through the data. But if they were to try to do that - or even just build a better system for Gun store owners to be able to turn in the forms - then you'd have all kinds of nuts coming out of the woodwork saying that they're up to no good
PDFs are already searchable. I believe they automatically pick up individual letters and words without any other data. It's just the way most pdf readers work.
@@lawrence-yx1ew PDF is a document format for page based documents. It could be as simple as blank pages with dimensions, or as complex as having text, forms, embedded programs, and 3D models. Many PDF scanners can also perform OCR to detect text, but a scanned page at its most basic is merely an image. Only those that contain a text layer (whether that's recognized and annotated in the background, like OCR, or the actual graphical elements, like when saved from a word processor) are searchable, though it's also possible to make image search systems. In this case, the actually significant data in all these forms is hand written, and has terrible odds of being recognized correctly by a computer. The first thing this office needs is a crank to stop hitting that arrow down key, that's a clear RSI recipe.
Of course it is! Otherwise it'd be too close to a gun registration system and the NRA would never allow their political lapdogs to do that. It would be so easy now to make a national system where you could enter in a SN for a gun and get the owner in seconds. But the NRA would lose its mind.
You're smoking crack if you think that the PDF processing OCR component is entirely trashed/deleted. Never mind the ease of running OCR on jpg files using a cluster of cloud computers as an earlier commenter said. Amazon has a contract to provide multiple federal branches with such computing resources. The lovable idiot is cast as the lead in this infotainment propaganda. Notice his assigned partner standing beside him, probably FBI or NSA. That guy is there to call out when something should be edited out from recording.
@K.D.P. Ross And how would I "show" that to you? Can I invite you to come to Europe where there's 14 countries less corrupt than the US? There's no government completely free from corruption, but there are standards where the public should hold their government accountable to. And the US government falls very short to those standards.
@K.D.P. Ross Granted. But having a curable cancer is still beter than having a curable cancer and then complain anybody can have cancer while refusing to treat it.
@@fromchopin I mean, I think it's more safe to say he doesn't... he's the chief of a national division of a government agency. Do you honestly think he's ripping a bong before work every morning? Are you 16?
Houser is the archetypical federal management employee, a guy with an advanced sense of humor that develops out of constantly being exposed to absurdity, and an almost zen-like calmness, which is one of the benefits of having a guaranteed job that never changes much. Really, if we were all upper level federal employees, there probably wouldn't be any more gun crimes.
They should probably restrict/ban guns some more. Knives, too. The lowest performing take state and federal jobs, as they couldn't compete in the private marketplace. Good ole union trash.
@rabblerouser - There has never been a communist government - only governments that were fans of communism when they started. Communism is only an issue in America, where it is used to scare people who mostly have NO idea what it is, but they've heard that it's bad.
You're probably right, but we'd consequently be mediocre people incapable of thinking outside the confines of our daily routine. No creativity. No vibrancy. No personality.
Part of what is crazy about this is that they have only the records from dealers that have gone out of business. As long as a dealer is in business, those records stay with the dealer.
why si that crazy? the dealer must hold all active 4473 forms to which the atf can come and inpsect at any moment. whats really crazy is believing the 4473 form and the housekeeping of such records does anything to prevent or even solve crimes
@tom walker: In your view, what is the point of 4473s (and NICS approvals)? If the point is to improve traceability _after_ a firearm has been used in a crime, then you'd want _all_ 4473s in a searchable database. And if that's not the point, what _is_ the point?
@@ncooty 4473 is simply a litmus test and initial receipt of gun purchase, does not follow the firearm; was seen as a compromise by both sides (as it is not direct registration or firearms). NICS is only there to keep a felon, the criminally ill, and those with active warrants from purchassing firearms and/or ammunition. it is not there to act as a log, database, or registry for firearms. further it only traces to the original purchaser. after that the firearm is not tracked or registered unless it comes into the possession of law enforcement, in which case they run serial numbers to see if has been reported stolen which is not the same as a 4473 log (the list of stolen firearms is not made public and is only comprised when an individual reports that said gun has been stolen) the point is there is no point and the documentary is based on falsehoods and outright lies. the ATF lie: they are tax enforcement only, they do not solve crimes outside of that. take it for what you will but any gun dealer or atf agent will tell you the 4473 only tells you that specific person bought a gun on a day. get educated on firearms and the laws surrounding it and you will be surprised to discover how backwards, stupid, and inneffective all measures of gun control have been in this country
@tom walker: [Apologies in advance for a long reply.] A 4473 is neither a receipt (it's filled out when an order is placed and is retained whether or not the purchase clears NICS or the item is delivered) nor litmus test. (I think you might've meant that it's a screen for the NICS.) It seems to me that useful information exists (e.g., identifying the original purchaser as a starting point for finding the current owner), but that some politicians purposefully hamstring that utility. They seem to want to be able to claim that they supported _some_ sort of measure and that there are sufficient laws on the books while at the same time snickering to the gun lobby that they ensured the laws are ineffective or functionally debilitated. My family ran a gun shop and we always found the ATF officers very straightforward, professional, and reasonable. You sound as if you've never dealt with them and would rather believe they're part of a conspiracy so that your worldview is secure. In any case, if you think the current laws are ineffective, do you think the answer is to strengthen the laws? (If so, how?) If not, what would you propose? E.g., personally, I think that mass shootings deservedly get a lot of attention, but that people over-estimate the death rates compared to other causes of death on which we might focus. If we're really interested in reducing deaths from violent crimes, we probably need to look further upstream than the ammunition and the grip design on the firearm. (That said, high-capacity magazines could probably be further regulated, possibly by licensing the sale and possession, similar to NFA items such as silencers.) If gun advocates really think the guns aren't the problem, then we should _all_ support research into gun-related deaths so that we can systematically determine where the best points of intervention _are._ Unfortunately, most people either care about this issue or understand firearms, not both--so we get either pretextual deflections or misguided bills based on ignorance.
that dude with the old sofa looking coat should have his own TV show, definitely seems like an actor in an indie film, i could see him playing this role but as a dark comedy where he is basically at war against this never ending flow of boxes piling up all around him
It is also sad to see that the Atlantic didn't report on the fact that the ATF also has an electronic reporting system for 4473s that is currently used by many gun shops across the country.
@@hunterkiller7352 not sure what you are trying to get at with your commentary. All i stated were facts that fill in a huge oversight the Atlantic didn't present in this piece that only colored the ATF in a light that the Atlantic wanted to portray that didn't educate the viewer fully. So i was intentionally trying to educate people...not accidental at all. What is with the Mr. know-it-all jibe? I spoke to one very specific fact which as far as I understand would not make me "know-it-all".
It's not really a database. It's primarily a huge folder of pictures. That's the point of it, as deemed by Congress (via the NRA's influence), they want to system to be as inconvenient and dysfunctional as possible.
Kelly Walker - CDLE 7:43 90% success rate. They’re doing a pretty good job it could be better but this video makes it seem that improving gun tracing would stop shootings.
@I am Jobu dude lol. They already have the records. They can already search the records. Increasing the efficiency of the searching doesn't affect privacy or increase any unreasonable searches. You just like the US gun culture and don't care that little kids keep getting killed. You love it.
@I am Jobu dude You can still have those protections in place with a sensible database. The need for a manual search in this day and age is just ridiculous.
@theatlantic now do a video on the outdated NFA process. I’d like to see why it take almost a year for me to get a tax stamp back (in which I payed $200 for), but they can run a firearm with a registration, within a matter of minutes.
Because of this 🤣. Jenny up at the ATF nfa division is having to lithograph each stamp and use the Telegraph to wire over the fbi to get approval for you background check. They then use the pony express to ride through the night to investigate any discrepancies. Then finally their carrier pigeons bring the stamped form 4 to your local ffl
All of the crime shows.( Law and Order, CSI Miami, bones,ect) makes you think that there is a computer database with all the information it. 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I thought right-wingers hate government waste. Make this digitally searchable and the process will literally be a million times faster. Computers can search in the order of milliseconds.
@william terry "the only reason to have a database is for confiscation", say the gun nuts. They obviously don't know, or care, how this agency stops the "bad guy with a gun".
@Ken Roberts Awe can someone not stand a discenting opinion? So they resort to just labeling everyone else a troll or bigot because they cant respond with an original idea of their own. That's cute.
This is why it's a great idea to give more responsibility to the government, like healthcare insurance and higher education financing. They run all their programs so darn well.
I'd just like to point out that the US does have a detailed registry for automatic weapons. For all intents and purposes, they never get used in crimes.
Legally detained full-auto are exceptionally rare in the US, cost tens of thousands if not 100k+ and in most cases require a class 3 license and payment of a special tax.
They actually seem to be doing an excellent job with the task they've been handed. I had no idea what this involved before. Seeing this, it's amazing how fast they get those urgent traces for high-profile shootings. Seems like the info comes out in the news generally within a day.
Because large gun retailers keep electronic records of guns they sell and can tell the ATF who bought the gun in a 10 min call, they only look through the archives for a very very small fraction of traces.
7:13 This makes sense. If the request was based on faulty/lacking information, then you couldn't expect to trace these requests. That they're able to hit >90% or trace requests in all other scenarios, given the restraints of their operating system, is impressive. Bravo.
I love the creepily-cheery music. It just reminds me of how our government keeps insisting that everything is fine and dandy. Welcome to the Dystopian States of America.
@Anonymous Weirdo Certain indicators, sure. Others, not so much. Weird to hear from someone who wants small government that our incarceration rate is just fine.
This a very well done mini-doc! Filming, editing, sound design, nailed it. Love the way the color grading and music made it seem set in the past to emphasize the archaicness of the system.
I can't help but wonder why there is so much paperwork... why not do all of this filing electronically? Hope there is no fire in this building anytime soon. Edit: 4:32 Welp...
because federal law prohibits centralized computer data; a searchable database of gun owners, thanks to the NRA circa 1986. So papers and thumbs is what we are left with despite..life....
That would be by definition a registry and the NRA, 20 years ago, lobbied against that. So it has to be as convoluted and outdated as possible to give the illusion that it's not. They legally aren't able to search by name.
@@testej9950 No-registration is a part of FOPA-1986 (Firearm Owner Protection Act-1986) that exchange with BAN on new sale of automatic-firearm (e.g. assault rifle, machine-gun) that made after May 1986 to civilian.
@@SimonR141 Are you stupid or just dumb? What did I just say? What did I just say above?! Did you read it? What is your intelligent guess of what I'm talking about? What is your intelligent guess of my understanding & opinion on it given the words & numbers that I typed? W.T.F. *gobsmacked* fh What is wrong with people....
I have seen this video probably half a dozen times at this point. Of all the thousands and thousands of videos I have ever seen on UA-cam, this has got to be one of my favourites. It is so well shot, and despite being a serious topic, it comes across a little funny. To those involved in making this, thank you - it is a pleasure to watch. I love it :)
Tim Cook told the FBI he would not help them break into an iPhone because the very act of making such a tool would provide a pathway for it to be misused. Facebook employees routinely spy on people for their own pleasure like Snowden explained NSA employees regularly watched their ex’s. Making such a tool would inevitably lead to its utilization by tyrants.
I really pity those guys. That's as close a embodiment of Sisyphean task I can imagine. The silver lining is that if a registry may ever be put in place, text recognition will make a conversion by batch processing easy.
Ret Marut, Theisentire system has been held by multiple lower courts to violate the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments. The higher courts don’t overrule them. A Registry would double down on that Unconstitutionality.
@@happydee6950 I gotta admit I'm not a legal expert but I don't see how a national database infringes on your right to bear arms. As for the other issues the system can easily be set up in a way to be in compliance with those amendments. Nobody has a problem with your car being registered for example.
Ret Marut, The 4th Amendment technically would ban them from having the information in the first place. The 5th may ban them from using the information against me. These are rulings from actual criminal cases on registries at various times. The thing is higher courts don’t override these types of rulings often. In the case of the 4th Amendment rulings I am unaware of one of those rulings being overturned. The final problem is registries only help long after the crime is over or when a crime is a long running endeavor.
@@happydee6950 thanks for the clarification. I see the point you are making and I am aware that those are statements from courts. However, I still can't see the difference between a gun registry and a record on license plates. Technically, (as I understand it) all your points should be applicable to cars as well. So, apart from the 2nd Amendment, where's the difference?
Ret Marut, License plates are about driving on public roads. Grandpa had a truck with no state paperwork or plates at all. It never left the ranch just like his oldest tractor.
Also- instead of fear mongering with a montage of dramatized footage and headlines on gun violence... Consider maybe putting a montage of all the unpopular stories of the 99.76% who own firearms each day and dont commit a crime with them to balance out the fearful rapid fire headlines with dramatic music... It would have been better to hear the bias admitted in clear words than to be forced to see that this content is quite biased and does not present the topic in a neutral manner. I do not mean this as a bash- but hopefully as a form of constructive criticism. *Please consider being more neutral and presenting both sides of a topic.*
If he's right that they're able to trace over 90% of the requests they get with serial numbers... that's pretty incredible given the 30 year old technology they're working with.
Matthew Schwenker, I believe the registry was made illegal by an Act, not the Constitution itself. I understand the rationale behind not wanting a registry. Why tell the government where the instruments of overthrow are? But we have to register many other things that would be necessary if we citizens ever did need to defend ourselves against the government. Good luck fighting a civil war without cars or other means of logistics, for example. The NRA is a powerful lobby a major reason FOPA exists, but I think this video makes a compelling argument for a legitimate need for a registry. I’m always open to discussion and seeing other sides though!
I'm still confused as to how much crime is solved here. They have a "90%" success rate of finding the last known legal owner. After some time it could have been stolen, lost, or sold to a third party. How many legal owners ditch a gun they know is tied to them? How many traces are used in court cases that lead to a conviction?
I suppose it helps to have a sense of humor doing that job. OF course the guy taking the video and the guy doing the cutting had one too. Nicely done; kept me smiling and shaking my head the whole way through. How much faster it would be to register the gun right out of the box...and faster to the end user too. Houser is a hoot; my Mother was a Houser...
A picture, jpeg or w/e isn't really that much different than a text document if you use the right software. There are plenty of free programs that let you search for text in pictures such as jpeg's
What a mess from a government management POV. I have to say, these guys are are doing very well with what they have. The guy in the suit seems like a guy out of a movie. Also, amazing film making.
I _truly_ thought this was a mockumentary.... How? In 2019? How is it like this? It seems to me that, _if_ America insists on having privately-owned firearms, the gun dealers need to change the way a gun is purchased.
AliEvaMari, Better Yet we go back to the Constitutional pre 1934 standard and toss this violation of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, & 14th Amendments in the trash!
Absolutely wonderful. 👍 Actually... even this seems to me to be questionably legal. But, they seem to generally use the system for valid issues, and seem to recognize and accept the spirit of this kind of "non-registry registry." 🤔 But, presumably these are only the records of FFLs that have gone out of business-- at least, let us hope so. A lot of the comments are something like, "😱 so shocked, how can this be, tragedy!" The answer, whether you like it or not, is: *The government has no business whatsoever knowing what arms its individual private citizens have.* None whatsoever. And rightly, a registry and searchable databse is, and should be, illegal. Even so, 4473 is a de-facto "registration" system by flipping the "technicality" of a transfer of serialized ownership from the manufacturer to the FFL, then being relinquished to the owner. It's still a paper trail.... 🤨 The fact that a federal government agency is digitizing these paper records-- even though they are supposedly not searchable, and are supposedly specifically designed to be unsearchable-- is still something that makes a lot of people justifiably queasy. Who is to say that a retroactive technology (e.g., google/FB have it, OCR technology) can't be applied to make those digitized copies searchable? The point is that, while it is pragmatically important to track and serialize firearms manufacturing items for several reasons unrelated to a gun registry, the American public must continue to be extremely adamant and vigilant with regard to denying the federal government any type of firearm registry that can reveal which private citizens have which firearms. That is the whole underlying point of our Second Amendment, our Constitutionally protected guaranteed civil right... that's the "necessary to the security of a free state" part (and no, "well-regulated" does not mean what hoplophobic anti-gun hysterical bigots always say it means with regard to regulating firearms... but what can we expect from people who insist on trying to control people by meddling with civil rights about which they know next-to-nothing...).
"More gun shops in the U.S than Starbucks, McDonald's and supermarkets put together". That's pretty amazing considering you also have gun shows etc....too. Its also amazing since it's a small number of citizens who own guns but evidently own many many guns. Great little documentary
Wow. There is no way this was not purposefully left in the pre-tech days. All this information can be on searchable files and filled out at the store of purchase so that this form won't exist. Insanity.
This is already in place. This piece obviously intentionally neglected to mention the electronic side of their 4473 reporting process. This video was intentionally crafted to make you think that the ATF is in the stone age
Why don’t they just categorize the PDFs by State, county, independent distributors with in the county. I mean I get the tremendous amount of overload but I really believe that there’s a solution to this mess.
@@shoulders-of-giants Not sure if Europe deserves our protection or if we should just let all you a-holes learn russian. oh, and your human rights-friendly constitution? YOU'RE WELCOME. now feel free to return to being an ungrateful ignoramus.
Can someone explain how they find records then? Are they organized by state -> city - > area -> manufacturer -> serial # or something? Obviously it's not an unsorted database with millions of entries, so what's the searching process they go through once they receive a request?
Watch more videos about American gun ownership here: ua-cam.com/video/N0XCoY2FQts/v-deo.html&
*Registration and/or any "paper trail" of any firearm is completely unconstitutional.*
While the previous fact has little bearing on the actions of the current administration- it is still a fact.
I appreciate this channel bringing light to this topic.
Crime is at a 50 year all time low, why don't you report on that Atlantic???
Thanks for your agenda atlantic
Shall not be infringed
the consequences of gun ownership may turn out to be defending our country from invasion or rogue government coup. think man you need guns "they" can't remove them all from a society so they're still needed for defense. deal with it.
This plays like an art film. I'm pretty sure that's Ethan Hawke playing the lead. Brad Pitt wanted the role but was eating too much.
You sir, know how to write a beautiful comment.
the guy looks a bit like brad pitt
So true! My husband actually just suggested this should be made into a TV series, and I said "with Ethan Hawke as the protagonist" and then I scrolled down and read your comment, haha
These guys need their own show. The Office 3.0
he's awesome. I was fixated
Separate and apart from the underlying issue of gun control, this video is extremely well-produced. It is well-shot, thoughtfully edited, funny, beautiful, has excellent sound, and is extremely expressive and really tells its story through its cinematography. Bravo, production team. I’m really impressed.
except it's supposed to be news and there is no news involved. but for that, its fantastic.
yep!
I agree. It is some very slick propaganda. No one can question the production value.
Fake news works best when they tell you what your supposed to feel and think. However, your right. Very well shot and produced.
@@vrolleri The Atlantic is a magazine, it does not just tell news.
Charles J. Houser should be in the next season of Fargo
Can we get this guy to be on a Cohen Brothers film?
Lucas Chavez it’s like he is a backwoods savant, awkward pauses and all.
Archaic by design. Unsearchable by design. Those jpgs can be formatted to be searchable - they just aren't. My jaw dropped open (honestly) when the woman was scrolling through jpgs. "Holy sh!t" keeps going through my head.
Even if they're not formatted nowadays you could run them pretty quickly through an OCR scanner via AWS or something and search through the data. But if they were to try to do that - or even just build a better system for Gun store owners to be able to turn in the forms - then you'd have all kinds of nuts coming out of the woodwork saying that they're up to no good
PDFs are already searchable. I believe they automatically pick up individual letters and words without any other data. It's just the way most pdf readers work.
@@lawrence-yx1ew PDF is a document format for page based documents. It could be as simple as blank pages with dimensions, or as complex as having text, forms, embedded programs, and 3D models. Many PDF scanners can also perform OCR to detect text, but a scanned page at its most basic is merely an image. Only those that contain a text layer (whether that's recognized and annotated in the background, like OCR, or the actual graphical elements, like when saved from a word processor) are searchable, though it's also possible to make image search systems. In this case, the actually significant data in all these forms is hand written, and has terrible odds of being recognized correctly by a computer. The first thing this office needs is a crank to stop hitting that arrow down key, that's a clear RSI recipe.
Of course it is! Otherwise it'd be too close to a gun registration system and the NRA would never allow their political lapdogs to do that.
It would be so easy now to make a national system where you could enter in a SN for a gun and get the owner in seconds. But the NRA would lose its mind.
You're smoking crack if you think that the PDF processing OCR component is entirely trashed/deleted. Never mind the ease of running OCR on jpg files using a cluster of cloud computers as an earlier commenter said. Amazon has a contract to provide multiple federal branches with such computing resources.
The lovable idiot is cast as the lead in this infotainment propaganda. Notice his assigned partner standing beside him, probably FBI or NSA. That guy is there to call out when something should be edited out from recording.
I literally thought this was a parody at first? Feels like the bastard child of The Office + Parks and Rec, but with guns.
honestly tho
@K.D.P. Ross shiiiii, straight fax lmao
@K.D.P. Ross No, That is what a corrupt government is.. This incompetence is by design.
@K.D.P. Ross And how would I "show" that to you? Can I invite you to come to Europe where there's 14 countries less corrupt than the US? There's no government completely free from corruption, but there are standards where the public should hold their government accountable to. And the US government falls very short to those standards.
@K.D.P. Ross Granted. But having a curable cancer is still beter than having a curable cancer and then complain anybody can have cancer while refusing to treat it.
Houser seems like a character
Is he autistic or something?
Seems like a stoner to me..
They say it takes one to know one & as a pot head I think it’s safe to say he wakes & bakes every day
@@fromchopin Hmm makes sense
@@fromchopin I mean, I think it's more safe to say he doesn't... he's the chief of a national division of a government agency. Do you honestly think he's ripping a bong before work every morning? Are you 16?
regan wilkes why you wanna know my age? You some kinda pervert??
Charles Houser is awesome and I do not know why
I like him. Very animated. Seems like a good guy
I’d like to get high with him
He's unflappable doing an insane job. Even punched cards would be an improvement. What a joke.
Maybe cos he carries a gun himself?
I hate the ATF, and I’d have a beer with this dude, lol. He was made for the camera
7:31 "No we can't trace that one..."
That had me cracking up lol
ROFL I about to fell over, His face is fucking PRICELESS!
And the well suppressed RAGE with which he said that sentence!
Houser is the archetypical federal management employee, a guy with an advanced sense of humor that develops out of constantly being exposed to absurdity, and an almost zen-like calmness, which is one of the benefits of having a guaranteed job that never changes much. Really, if we were all upper level federal employees, there probably wouldn't be any more gun crimes.
rabblerouser Jesus Christ 😑
@rabblerouser Last time I checked Karl Marx wanted the working force armed and communism wasn't mentioned once. You're really shit at arguing.
They should probably restrict/ban guns some more.
Knives, too.
The lowest performing take state and federal jobs, as they couldn't compete in the private marketplace.
Good ole union trash.
@rabblerouser - There has never been a communist government - only governments that were fans of communism when they started. Communism is only an issue in America, where it is used to scare people who mostly have NO idea what it is, but they've heard that it's bad.
You're probably right, but we'd consequently be mediocre people incapable of thinking outside the confines of our daily routine. No creativity. No vibrancy. No personality.
The Directors outfit is straight stylish
Part of what is crazy about this is that they have only the records from dealers that have gone out of business. As long as a dealer is in business, those records stay with the dealer.
yeah thats crazy
why si that crazy? the dealer must hold all active 4473 forms to which the atf can come and inpsect at any moment. whats really crazy is believing the 4473 form and the housekeeping of such records does anything to prevent or even solve crimes
@tom walker: In your view, what is the point of 4473s (and NICS approvals)?
If the point is to improve traceability _after_ a firearm has been used in a crime, then you'd want _all_ 4473s in a searchable database.
And if that's not the point, what _is_ the point?
@@ncooty 4473 is simply a litmus test and initial receipt of gun purchase, does not follow the firearm; was seen as a compromise by both sides (as it is not direct registration or firearms). NICS is only there to keep a felon, the criminally ill, and those with active warrants from purchassing firearms and/or ammunition. it is not there to act as a log, database, or registry for firearms.
further it only traces to the original purchaser. after that the firearm is not tracked or registered unless it comes into the possession of law enforcement, in which case they run serial numbers to see if has been reported stolen which is not the same as a 4473 log (the list of stolen firearms is not made public and is only comprised when an individual reports that said gun has been stolen)
the point is there is no point and the documentary is based on falsehoods and outright lies. the ATF lie: they are tax enforcement only, they do not solve crimes outside of that. take it for what you will but any gun dealer or atf agent will tell you the 4473 only tells you that specific person bought a gun on a day.
get educated on firearms and the laws surrounding it and you will be surprised to discover how backwards, stupid, and inneffective all measures of gun control have been in this country
@tom walker: [Apologies in advance for a long reply.]
A 4473 is neither a receipt (it's filled out when an order is placed and is retained whether or not the purchase clears NICS or the item is delivered) nor litmus test. (I think you might've meant that it's a screen for the NICS.)
It seems to me that useful information exists (e.g., identifying the original purchaser as a starting point for finding the current owner), but that some politicians purposefully hamstring that utility. They seem to want to be able to claim that they supported _some_ sort of measure and that there are sufficient laws on the books while at the same time snickering to the gun lobby that they ensured the laws are ineffective or functionally debilitated.
My family ran a gun shop and we always found the ATF officers very straightforward, professional, and reasonable. You sound as if you've never dealt with them and would rather believe they're part of a conspiracy so that your worldview is secure.
In any case, if you think the current laws are ineffective, do you think the answer is to strengthen the laws? (If so, how?) If not, what would you propose? E.g., personally, I think that mass shootings deservedly get a lot of attention, but that people over-estimate the death rates compared to other causes of death on which we might focus.
If we're really interested in reducing deaths from violent crimes, we probably need to look further upstream than the ammunition and the grip design on the firearm. (That said, high-capacity magazines could probably be further regulated, possibly by licensing the sale and possession, similar to NFA items such as silencers.)
If gun advocates really think the guns aren't the problem, then we should _all_ support research into gun-related deaths so that we can systematically determine where the best points of intervention _are._
Unfortunately, most people either care about this issue or understand firearms, not both--so we get either pretextual deflections or misguided bills based on ignorance.
Charles Houser is my new favorite actor. Hollywood call him ASAP!
Word
that dude with the old sofa looking coat should have his own TV show, definitely seems like an actor in an indie film, i could see him playing this role but as a dark comedy where he is basically at war against this never ending flow of boxes piling up all around him
It is also sad to see that the Atlantic didn't report on the fact that the ATF also has an electronic reporting system for 4473s that is currently used by many gun shops across the country.
Well we wouldn't want to accidentally educate someone or anything, now would we mr. know-it-all?
Shhhhh you must not spread the truthful knowledge.
@@hunterkiller7352 not sure what you are trying to get at with your commentary. All i stated were facts that fill in a huge oversight the Atlantic didn't present in this piece that only colored the ATF in a light that the Atlantic wanted to portray that didn't educate the viewer fully. So i was intentionally trying to educate people...not accidental at all. What is with the Mr. know-it-all jibe? I spoke to one very specific fact which as far as I understand would not make me "know-it-all".
@@hyfy-tr2jy It's sarcasm geez.
Damn the photography and editing are good!
Bro, I love the appreciation to our craft... well put.
Incredibly well filmed and narrated! Houser seems to be born to be on camera!! Beuatiful video, important content... keep it up Atlantic!!
Lol that’s wild hahaha they can’t search their own data base
It's not really a database. It's primarily a huge folder of pictures. That's the point of it, as deemed by Congress (via the NRA's influence), they want to system to be as inconvenient and dysfunctional as possible.
Kelly Walker - CDLE 7:43 90% success rate. They’re doing a pretty good job it could be better but this video makes it seem that improving gun tracing would stop shootings.
It’s good job security , impossible for technology to replace these workers
@I am Jobu dude lol. They already have the records. They can already search the records. Increasing the efficiency of the searching doesn't affect privacy or increase any unreasonable searches. You just like the US gun culture and don't care that little kids keep getting killed. You love it.
@I am Jobu dude You can still have those protections in place with a sensible database. The need for a manual search in this day and age is just ridiculous.
@theatlantic now do a video on the outdated NFA process. I’d like to see why it take almost a year for me to get a tax stamp back (in which I payed $200 for), but they can run a firearm with a registration, within a matter of minutes.
Jon S preach man preach
Because of this 🤣. Jenny up at the ATF nfa division is having to lithograph each stamp and use the Telegraph to wire over the fbi to get approval for you background check. They then use the pony express to ride through the night to investigate any discrepancies. Then finally their carrier pigeons bring the stamped form 4 to your local ffl
10/10 on the film crew, editor, and producers who thought of these shots. Good story as well.
Fried Guy's agreed. Great production
Amazing shots and production as always. The musical sound design, big up!
My biggest take-away: working for the NTC is the most reliable job you will ever find. A brain shut-down mode is advised, though^^
All of the crime shows.( Law and Order, CSI Miami, bones,ect) makes you think that there is a computer database with all the information it. 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Their computer database just connects to an old lady flipping pages on the other end 😂
Yes and ALL crimes are solved with DNA!
@@Alex-us2vw and when she gets home the woman hitting the keyboard her finger is seized up with cramp...goes off sick a lot ...hand problems.
Lot's of big gun stores keep electronic searchable records, so they can trace guns very fast most of the time.
Those shows are gay.
Inefficiency is the goal many want in this. Crazy.
Exactly. "ridiculously old-fashioned" isn't accurate. More like "purposefully cumbersome."
lol. How does making an efficient searchable database take away your freedom to bear arms?
I thought right-wingers hate government waste. Make this digitally searchable and the process will literally be a million times faster. Computers can search in the order of milliseconds.
@william terry "the only reason to have a database is for confiscation", say the gun nuts. They obviously don't know, or care, how this agency stops the "bad guy with a gun".
@@upaya30 They religiously affirm that this agency is completely incapable of stopping "the bad guy", because *only* "the good guy" can do that.
So all the boxes are boxes of papers not scanned yet?
I think congress passed a law against having an electronic database of guns because it would violate people 2nd amendment rights.
Yes, those are not yet scanned and beauracraticly can not be scanned. To be clear, the second amendment does not restrict us from having a database.
@Jack Media: They can be scanned and are being scanned. The files are just not electronically searched and no database consolidates the files.
@@ncooty got it so it's just a giant backlog of papers. i wish we could see how they dispose of them once they're scanned
@@hari4800 they can have an electronic database of jpegs
Why is this an episode of Fargo?
Absolutely insane.
Why? You realize the futility behind this right? 85% of all firearms used in a homicide are either stolen, or have no serial number.
@Ken Roberts Awe can someone not stand a discenting opinion? So they resort to just labeling everyone else a troll or bigot because they cant respond with an original idea of their own. That's cute.
Ken Roberts when did he call you a troll or bigot? He said thank you.
@@480darkshadow might have been an edit
You guys have BEST Documentaries.
This isn't a documentary. It's anti gun propaganda
This is why it's a great idea to give more responsibility to the government, like healthcare insurance and higher education financing. They run all their programs so darn well.
You realise it is this way because of NRA lobbying, right? Did you even watch the video? 5:30, man.
@@daisuke1639 Yes, many government programs are made inefficient and ineffective by political involvement from both sides.
@@daisuke1639 The NRA is not as powerful as you think, and never was. They are outspent by gun control groups.
I'd just like to point out that the US does have a detailed registry for automatic weapons. For all intents and purposes, they never get used in crimes.
Sphere723, Yet the ATF and law enforcement agencies confiscate thousands of unregistered illegal Machine Guns every year.
Thats not why they arent used in crimes much they never have been. Registries are criminal dont endorse them
Joshua LoCicero what the fuck do the words you just said even mean?
Legally detained full-auto are exceptionally rare in the US, cost tens of thousands if not 100k+ and in most cases require a class 3 license and payment of a special tax.
@@happydee6950 actually they don't.
Reminds me of The Office. But in the 1970s.
They actually seem to be doing an excellent job with the task they've been handed. I had no idea what this involved before. Seeing this, it's amazing how fast they get those urgent traces for high-profile shootings. Seems like the info comes out in the news generally within a day.
Because large gun retailers keep electronic records of guns they sell and can tell the ATF who bought the gun in a 10 min call, they only look through the archives for a very very small fraction of traces.
7:13 This makes sense. If the request was based on faulty/lacking information, then you couldn't expect to trace these requests.
That they're able to hit >90% or trace requests in all other scenarios, given the restraints of their operating system, is impressive. Bravo.
It's too bad not all the records were submitted on toilet paper!
It would be really sad if some of those containers ever started on fire.
Old fashioned for sure. This guy looks like he's playing Kevin Costner in the untouchables. Not to mention his cross draw holster.
I love the creepily-cheery music. It just reminds me of how our government keeps insisting that everything is fine and dandy. Welcome to the Dystopian States of America.
Yeah, we sneer at Russia like we are perfect when in fact we are far from it.
Not perfect but definitely nowhere near dystopian.
@Anonymous Weirdo Certain indicators, sure. Others, not so much. Weird to hear from someone who wants small government that our incarceration rate is just fine.
Annie Vance sounds like a play on Stranger Things theme
Crime is at a 50 year low. Turn off the TV
Operation Fast and Furious, Obama's ATF and DOJ. MOLON LABE.
REMEMBER WACO
This a very well done mini-doc! Filming, editing, sound design, nailed it. Love the way the color grading and music made it seem set in the past to emphasize the archaicness of the system.
I can't help but wonder why there is so much paperwork... why not do all of this filing electronically? Hope there is no fire in this building anytime soon.
Edit: 4:32 Welp...
because federal law prohibits centralized computer data; a searchable database of gun owners, thanks to the NRA circa 1986. So papers and thumbs is what we are left with despite..life....
Also they are go to transfer papers into pdf then to jpeg
That would be by definition a registry and the NRA, 20 years ago, lobbied against that. So it has to be as convoluted and outdated as possible to give the illusion that it's not. They legally aren't able to search by name.
@@testej9950 No-registration is a part of FOPA-1986 (Firearm Owner Protection Act-1986) that exchange with BAN on new sale of automatic-firearm (e.g. assault rifle, machine-gun) that made after May 1986 to civilian.
@@SimonR141 Are you stupid or just dumb? What did I just say? What did I just say above?! Did you read it? What is your intelligent guess of what I'm talking about? What is your intelligent guess of my understanding & opinion on it given the words & numbers that I typed? W.T.F. *gobsmacked* fh
What is wrong with people....
I have seen this video probably half a dozen times at this point. Of all the thousands and thousands of videos I have ever seen on UA-cam, this has got to be one of my favourites. It is so well shot, and despite being a serious topic, it comes across a little funny. To those involved in making this, thank you - it is a pleasure to watch. I love it :)
That is crazy their hands are tied so much they can't convert their pdfs in to searchable text.
Tim Cook told the FBI he would not help them break into an iPhone because the very act of making such a tool would provide a pathway for it to be misused. Facebook employees routinely spy on people for their own pleasure like Snowden explained NSA employees regularly watched their ex’s. Making such a tool would inevitably lead to its utilization by tyrants.
Inches to miles is a crazy conversion rate when dealing with feds
Love this format
This reminds me of that tv series, “The Office”
The fact that it's slow is part of the point.
this could be a movie!
Never take this video down. This video is unforgettable.
I really pity those guys. That's as close a embodiment of Sisyphean task I can imagine.
The silver lining is that if a registry may ever be put in place, text recognition will make a conversion by batch processing easy.
Ret Marut, Theisentire system has been held by multiple lower courts to violate the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments. The higher courts don’t overrule them. A Registry would double down on that Unconstitutionality.
@@happydee6950 I gotta admit I'm not a legal expert but I don't see how a national database infringes on your right to bear arms. As for the other issues the system can easily be set up in a way to be in compliance with those amendments.
Nobody has a problem with your car being registered for example.
Ret Marut, The 4th Amendment technically would ban them from having the information in the first place.
The 5th may ban them from using the information against me.
These are rulings from actual criminal cases on registries at various times. The thing is higher courts don’t override these types of rulings often.
In the case of the 4th Amendment rulings I am unaware of one of those rulings being overturned.
The final problem is registries only help long after the crime is over or when a crime is a long running endeavor.
@@happydee6950 thanks for the clarification. I see the point you are making and I am aware that those are statements from courts. However, I still can't see the difference between a gun registry and a record on license plates.
Technically, (as I understand it) all your points should be applicable to cars as well.
So, apart from the 2nd Amendment, where's the difference?
Ret Marut, License plates are about driving on public roads.
Grandpa had a truck with no state paperwork or plates at all. It never left the ranch just like his oldest tractor.
Love that they are still using that old beige box PC for something in that place..
Great job with the video
There is something oddly satisfying about watching and hearing those sorting machines at work.
At this point I don’t even car what that video was about. But damn that was a good video
This video is criminally good. One of the best pieces of art I've seen on UA-cam in a while
Also- instead of fear mongering with a montage of dramatized footage and headlines on gun violence...
Consider maybe putting a montage of all the unpopular stories of the 99.76% who own firearms each day and dont commit a crime with them to balance out the fearful rapid fire headlines with dramatic music...
It would have been better to hear the bias admitted in clear words than to be forced to see that this content is quite biased and does not present the topic in a neutral manner.
I do not mean this as a bash- but hopefully as a form of constructive criticism.
*Please consider being more neutral and presenting both sides of a topic.*
the people who made this deserve whatever cinematic project they want.
The solution is simple. No records.
That's sheer madness!
Wow, I would go insane working there! It's a great video, thanks for sharing!
If he's right that they're able to trace over 90% of the requests they get with serial numbers... that's pretty incredible given the 30 year old technology they're working with.
DEFINITELY AN OVERLOAD
I remember seeing the Charles J Houser guy in another video. Seems like a chill dude.
what a joke, no Registry?!?!
you're right: we should also have a registry for speech, b/c that makes total sense.
Adrian Garza you gotta be kidding me?
Not that this tracing center is an efficient alternative. But a registry is unconstitutional
Matthew Schwenker, I believe the registry was made illegal by an Act, not the Constitution itself. I understand the rationale behind not wanting a registry. Why tell the government where the instruments of overthrow are? But we have to register many other things that would be necessary if we citizens ever did need to defend ourselves against the government. Good luck fighting a civil war without cars or other means of logistics, for example. The NRA is a powerful lobby a major reason FOPA exists, but I think this video makes a compelling argument for a legitimate need for a registry. I’m always open to discussion and seeing other sides though!
@@AA752 it would violate the 4th and 5th amendment.
@@AA752
Oi mate, you a loicense for that keyboard?
Outstanding!
Wow. So many firearms that have not been used in any crime !
I'm still confused as to how much crime is solved here. They have a "90%" success rate of finding the last known legal owner. After some time it could have been stolen, lost, or sold to a third party. How many legal owners ditch a gun they know is tied to them? How many traces are used in court cases that lead to a conviction?
This is excellently produced
This would be hilarious if it were a work of fiction. You gotta admire North America's steadfast dedication to fuckin up.
I suppose it helps to have a sense of humor doing that job. OF course the guy taking the video and the guy doing the cutting had one too. Nicely done; kept me smiling and shaking my head the whole way through. How much faster it would be to register the gun right out of the box...and faster to the end user too.
Houser is a hoot; my Mother was a Houser...
Whoever created this needs a raise asap
A picture, jpeg or w/e isn't really that much different than a text document if you use the right software. There are plenty of free programs that let you search for text in pictures such as jpeg's
SO SO SO TRUE!!!! This is just more disinformation trying to convince people that they're doing it to save lives and not to control the population
They are not allowed to convert it to a text document.
This is beyond inefficient, even for the government.
Fantastic video. Well done !!
Wow, spending a life time searching for a particular record. I happy to see that they spend their moving and accounting boxes. Keep it that way.
>”No registration”
>Shows that the ATF still does backdoor registration with the #4473 Forms
What a mess from a government management POV. I have to say, these guys are are doing very well with what they have. The guy in the suit seems like a guy out of a movie. Also, amazing film making.
In the age of Google search I can feel that guy frustration with this archaic system to search for a gun info.
The very existence of this facility is unconstitutional. We should be calling our representatives to have its data wiped and documents burnt
Just another highly organised government department.
NO REGISTRATION!
Theres a hut behind the building. Based on the interviewee, I'm guessing a hookah sitting right in the middle.
I _truly_ thought this was a mockumentary.... How? In 2019? How is it like this?
It seems to me that, _if_ America insists on having privately-owned firearms, the gun dealers need to change the way a gun is purchased.
AliEvaMari, Better Yet we go back to the Constitutional pre 1934 standard and toss this violation of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, & 14th Amendments in the trash!
Absolutely wonderful. 👍 Actually... even this seems to me to be questionably legal. But, they seem to generally use the system for valid issues, and seem to recognize and accept the spirit of this kind of "non-registry registry." 🤔 But, presumably these are only the records of FFLs that have gone out of business-- at least, let us hope so. A lot of the comments are something like, "😱 so shocked, how can this be, tragedy!" The answer, whether you like it or not, is: *The government has no business whatsoever knowing what arms its individual private citizens have.* None whatsoever. And rightly, a registry and searchable databse is, and should be, illegal. Even so, 4473 is a de-facto "registration" system by flipping the "technicality" of a transfer of serialized ownership from the manufacturer to the FFL, then being relinquished to the owner. It's still a paper trail.... 🤨
The fact that a federal government agency is digitizing these paper records-- even though they are supposedly not searchable, and are supposedly specifically designed to be unsearchable-- is still something that makes a lot of people justifiably queasy. Who is to say that a retroactive technology (e.g., google/FB have it, OCR technology) can't be applied to make those digitized copies searchable? The point is that, while it is pragmatically important to track and serialize firearms manufacturing items for several reasons unrelated to a gun registry, the American public must continue to be extremely adamant and vigilant with regard to denying the federal government any type of firearm registry that can reveal which private citizens have which firearms. That is the whole underlying point of our Second Amendment, our Constitutionally protected guaranteed civil right... that's the "necessary to the security of a free state" part (and no, "well-regulated" does not mean what hoplophobic anti-gun hysterical bigots always say it means with regard to regulating firearms... but what can we expect from people who insist on trying to control people by meddling with civil rights about which they know next-to-nothing...).
And all those people who refrained from buying guns because they thought someone actually checked
You're misunderstood , this is the trace center . not the agency that approves the sale .
Crime is at a 50 year all time low, why don't you report on that Atlantic???
Amazing cinematography, bravo.
why do i think .. Meet the "Jay and Silent Bob" of the ATF Gun tracking center! after watching this?
Having to deal with the legal rstrictions placed on them, these guys are legendary!
What guns I have is none of the governments business.
This is an outstanding piece of work. Quality storytelling on an absolute atrocity of a subject.
"More gun shops in the U.S than Starbucks, McDonald's and supermarkets put together". That's pretty amazing considering you also have gun shows etc....too. Its
also amazing since it's a small number of citizens who own guns but evidently own many many guns. Great little documentary
Wow. There is no way this was not purposefully left in the pre-tech days. All this information can be on searchable files and filled out at the store of purchase so that this form won't exist. Insanity.
This is already in place. This piece obviously intentionally neglected to mention the electronic side of their 4473 reporting process. This video was intentionally crafted to make you think that the ATF is in the stone age
@@hyfy-tr2jy Well, the part that they show is actually in the stone age. And good that they have an electronic side of that reporting process.
We are a comically backward nation. Except what's comically backward is life-threatening.
Why don’t they just categorize the PDFs by State, county, independent distributors with in the county. I mean I get the tremendous amount of overload but I really believe that there’s a solution to this mess.
Why would anyone ever use paper for that?
I think congress passed a law against having an electronic database of guns because it would violate people 2nd amendment rights.
@@hari4800 Guns as part of a constitution is outlandish btw. I'm thankful Iive in post-WW2 Germany ❤️
Our constitution has human rights in it.
They arent allowed to have a digital searchable registry thanks to NRA lobbying. Its ridiculous
@@hari4800 Not sure if Americans deserve to suffer from their own stupidity.
@@shoulders-of-giants Not sure if Europe deserves our protection or if we should just let all you a-holes learn russian.
oh, and your human rights-friendly constitution? YOU'RE WELCOME.
now feel free to return to being an ungrateful ignoramus.
Thank you for making this
Great video. And impressive civil servants. Seems to me they are the best they can in absurd circumstances.
Smoov Cat The organization itself is stupid but the people that work there probably omg work there because they need a job
Can someone explain how they find records then? Are they organized by state -> city - > area -> manufacturer -> serial # or something? Obviously it's not an unsorted database with millions of entries, so what's the searching process they go through once they receive a request?
I wish they expanded on that.
This whole thing just makes me want to stay away from America even more.
Good, we don't want you
Overall crime is at a 50 year low. Don’t buy into news media fear mongering.
This was an incredibly well made film guys well done.