Mexico gets gun-tracing software

[Yo Mama]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-06-mexico-guns-Spanish-tracer-system_N.htm

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY
MEXICO CITY — Police in Latin America will soon have access to a Spanish version of a U.S. gun-tracking system that could widen efforts to hunt down crime suspects and weapons traffickers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said Wednesday that it is about to begin testing a Spanish-language version of eTrace, the computer system that helps police trace who buys U.S. firearms.

"This is to allow the infrastructure to make it easier for law enforcement throughout Latin America to track the firearms in their own language," said Scot Thomasson, an ATF spokesman.

National police in Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica will be the first users of the new system.

The ATF is trying to stop buyers who funnel weapons to drug cartels. Because many police officers in Latin America do not speak English, the ATF hopes the Spanish-language eTrace will encourage them to submit serial numbers of guns they find at crime scenes, Thomasson said.

Where a gun came from and who bought it is valuable data for Mexico, which has been fighting a bloody battle with drug cartels for years. Mexico says that thousands of weapons are smuggled to the cartels from the United States. The ATF agrees, though it notes that thousands of weapons found in Mexico have not been traced to the USA.

The eTrace computer system allows the ATF to track the unique serial number of a weapon. Requests for a trace are made by police to the ATF through a website. Then, police sometimes can identify "straw purchasers" who buy guns for others illegally or gun sellers who may be dealing with cartels.

The Spanish-language eTrace could conceivably help U.S. authorities prosecute the cartels' gun suppliers, said Maureen Meyer, Mexico associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank. But many Latin American police forces lack the manpower to submit traces on the guns they seize, she said.

"The greater challenge is to have the authorities in any of these countries actually submit this information in a timely manner," she said.

The eTrace system in English has been used outside the USA for years. The National Rifle Association (NRA) says it worries that expanded use of eTrace could lead to private information about gun owners being leaked.

"There's always a potential, especially when things are online, for errors to occur," said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman. "All it takes is one person clicking the wrong button, and all of a sudden a whole lot of information could be made public."

Thomasson said there were no known cases of trace information being misused by foreign authorities. He said that only a few foreign police officers are allowed to use the system and that the ATF had vetted them.

John Velleco, director of federal affairs for the Springfield, Va.-based Gun Owners of America, said many Mexican police have been charged with passing other types of sensitive information to criminals.

"We don't trust our own government to have a national list of gun owners, much less a government whose corruption is legendary," Velleco said. "For the U.S. to give that type of government access to our records of gun owners is an outrage."

Wait a minute! I thought it was not legal for the feds to trace guns? Many people on here said it wasn't so. Sorry folks, thoughts?

 

[svtruth]

The Cartels

seem to be armed with automatic weapons impossible to leagally own here. The theory is that much of their weaponry is diverted from the military.

 

[Yo Mama]

Thanks svtruth, but not the point of my post. I want to be clear, I know that the US is not to blame for the weapons in Mexico.

My point in posting is: Weapons are traced. This is proof positive for anyone who says otherwise. When you buy a weapon, in violation of current law, you are registered.

 

[44Dave]

Isn't that the point of all that paper work you fill out?

 

[everallm]

Errrr no

The Etrace system sends a request to a processing system that looks up in a database for those firearms that have been entered into the system. it does not get fed from the NICS system.

The database will have lost, stolen, used illegally etc entered into it and IF the system permits it a request can be generated to the ATF to do some shoe work to track a firearm from the manufacturer.

Process

Juan Manuel is the designated individual with access to the Etrace system.
He receives a request to check an AR15 that was seized in a drugs bust
Logs onto Etrace, puts in the details and clicks send
The request is separately processed against the ATF database with a match or not and response is returned
If no match the request can be submitted with a "pretty please can you check back via manufacturer"
ATF decides whether they want to do
ATF sends a request to the manufacturer who tells them which distributor they sent it to
ATF sends a request to the distributor who tells then the wholesaler
ATF sends a request to the wholesaler who tells them the retailer
ATF visits the retailer and looks at the bound book for an individual name
ATF vistis the original buyer and finds out he sold the weapon legally FTF 5 years ago
ATF can't track it further
ATF tells Juan can't help you further

It;s not some mythical registry, it's police work

 

[Bubbles]

ATF doesn't need to visit the retailer. ATF can call the retailer, and the retailer checks the bound book(s) to find out who bought the gun.

 

[Tirod]

Still, the net effect is this: full autos will be traced back to the lend lease program that sent them to whatever corrupt Central American government that didn't keep them under lock and key, and semi's may or may not.

The BATF has every reason to trumpet the number of straw purchasers they've busted in this power struggle, even if only to justify themselves to the current administration. If they haven't got arrests, they can't.

Which implies there aren't arrests, because their aren't straw purchasers.

We also abandoned millions of M16's in Vietnam, and they are selling them for cash. Many turn up in Central America. The press doesn't talk about it, likely because their vast ignorance of firearms prevents intelligent questioning.

Back to Etrace, they have announced that, it's good publicity. Puts the burden on our neighbors to do their work, we'll do ours. Nice feel good system that might track a few semis, and will quickly confirm Cpt. Valdez in a rural province, or the former !st Viet Marines sold off some inventory. We get to connect the dots.

Central American governments then are on the hook for other political ventures as needed. They owe us for the embarrassment of mishandling the goods.

If anything, America's "spoiled rich" are to blame for the whole snafu. Who's buying the drugs?

I thought I saw an ad campaign on that. What happened to it?

 

[Cosmoline]

As long as part of the agreement is we get 100% access, completely public, to every bit of data collected. I don't want them discovering how few guns come from US sources only to bury the data.

 

[Computer Guy]

ATF Gun Tracing

ATF Backdoor Firearms Registration Scheme (Revised Feb 16, 2010)

Contrary to the Intent of Congress and in clear violation of the 1986 Firearms Owners' Protection Act [18 U.S.C. 926(a)], the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has quietly built a massive, centralized, backdoor Registration System for Firearms, Firearm Owners and Firearm Transactions. 18 U.S.C. 926(a) specifically forbids registration of firearms records. The wording is clear. It does not matter if the registration systems are manual or automated, nor if they are paper records or electronic - all are specifically prohibited.

Yet, in the guise of a Firearm Tracing System (FTS), ATF has built a huge computerized Firearms Registration System containing over 400 million firearms sales transaction records (far more than the estimated total number of firearms in the United States) and provides manual & automated first purchaser gun owner name and address retrieval from:
1) All previous firearms traces from all sources,
2) Dealer, Importer, and Manufacturer computer and paper “Bound Book” Out-of-Business records,
3) Dealer “Bound Book” records (computer and/or paper) copied by ATF during annual inspections.
4) ATF Form 4473 copied from dealers and Out-of-Business records.
5) Multiple Firearm Sales reports (ATF F 3310.4)
6) Traditional phone calls to the manufacturer, distributor and final selling dealer, and
7) Additional data sources, such as some state firearms sales records.
8) Dealer “Bound Books” over 20 years old voluntarily sent in to ATF.
9) Includes some antique firearms allowed to be entered in “Bound Books”.

Several systems provide access to these registration records:

1. Online LEAD
Online LEAD is a system available to all state and local law enforcement in the U.S. at ATF field offices. "ATF special agents are privy to the names and addresses of any individuals involved in multiple sales transactions or ... gun traces (including false, erroneous and innocent traces) where the individual is the purchaser, possessor, and/or associate in the transaction." (Prosecutor’s Guide to the ATF, 2003)

2. eTrace System
eTrace provides world-wide internet access to U.S. firearms registration records! Over 10,000 individuals with over 2000 foreign and domestic law enforcement agencies around the world have access to American gun owner personal information. Even if you sold the gun years ago, a trace identifies the first individual purchaser name & address, so ATF specifically provides "a description of the original retail purchaser"). The National Tracing Center, “conducts gun traces, and returns information on their findings to the submitting party”- including corrupt Mexican Police. eTrace allows “user-friendly” searches by individual name or gun serial number. Only the first purchaser is identified. Later owners of used guns are rarely identified – a major flaw in the system.

The Tiahrt Amendment and 2008 Appropriations Bill specifically prohibits ATF from disclosing certain personal information from the Firearms Tracing System and prohibits retrieving information by name. Despite this restriction, eTrace will search records by name. Foreign governments and agencies are under no such restrictions. Nothing can prevent retrieving gun sales under your name and disclosing it to anyone – including anti-gun organizations such as the Brady Campaign.

Your name, address, detailed personal information, and detail on your guns is directly available to 31 foreign governments, including some with known anti-firearms policies and corruption issues. Trace requests have also been accepted by ATF from 58 foreign governments, including some with terrorist connections. Columbia and possibly Mexico have their own in-country tracing centers (staffed by foreign nationals) with access to American gun registration records. ATF admits these are models for future tracing centers throughout Central and South America, and the Caribbean Basin. A Spanish language version of eTrace has been deployed to Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica, and ATF admits a specific goal to provide eTrace software to all 31 states within the Republic of Mexico. If your name turns up on a foreign trace, you will automatically be placed on a gun trafficking suspect list – even if you innocently sold the gun years ago.

“Almost half of Mexican police officers examined this year have failed background and security tests, a figure that rises to nearly 9 of 10 cops in the border state of Baja California”, reported the Mexican Government in Nov. 2008. Additional reports indicate the Mexican Army may be just as corrupt.
The Mexican Army recently disarmed corrupt Mexican Police in the cities of Tijuana, Cancun, Rosarito, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros, and arrested a number of Police Commanders in Mexico City. Yet, during FY 2007 and 2008, ATF conducted twelve eTrace training sessions for over 750 Mexican Police Officers in several Mexican cities, including Mexico City, Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, and Matamoros. (GAO Report 09-709)

The most corrupt police in all of Mexico have been trained by ATF to retrieve personal information on American gun owners. Nothing can prevent incompetent, corrupt or misguided police (foreign or U.S.) from making false, phony or fraudulent traces, nor can we prevent retrieving American gun owner information for their own purposes. A major system flaw.

3. N-Focis
Another system that ties much of the bureau's information together (including Registration records) is called N-Focis (National Field Office Case Information System), with four parts:

N-Force. Supports ATF's criminal law enforcement activities, including investigations of firearms law
violations, weapons smuggling and interagency task force projects

N-Spect. Manages records for regulatory case enforcement

N-Quire. Built on N-Force and serves as an intelligence analytical tool for major investigations and to
provide management information to command posts

TMS. Text management system designed to search for text strings within the other databases and
eventually, to hold audio and video files.

'The overall concept behind this is a centralized database where information is stored and can be queried or manipulated by anyone with authorization,' according to an ATF employee.

Analysis
Make no mistake – this Firearms Tracing System is a euphemism for a firearms registration system. It does not matter if the system includes all firearms or all owners, nor if the system is manual (paper) or automated (electronic). If the system records and registers “firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions” it is a clear violation of 18 U.S.C. 926(a).

Any automated record system containing individual gun owner names and addresses can easily be accessed and extracted by name and address. Computer software is readily available to make “ad hoc” inquiries and retrievals which leave no audit trail. ATF (or foreign police) can find all records for certain addresses or specific people, and leave no trace of the inquiry. Corrupt or misguided ATF employees or contractors can download gun owner records for their own purposes – and leave no trace. Even the most secure computer systems can be hacked – either internally or by outsiders.

The ultimate goal of a firearms tracing system is registration of every new and used firearm and every gun owner. In a 2003 presentation to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, ATF spoke of the "Gold Standard" of tracing being "web-based registration", forbidden by Congress.
Write, call, fax and email your Congressman now! Demand that ATF comply with the law! Write the NRA and ask for their support. Stop this Registration System!

This paper was compiled from official News Reports and government sources, including speeches by ATF employees, ATF Official Documents, Reports and Publications, ATF Testimony before Congress, Government Accounting Office (GAO) Reports, and many other sources.

The author is a retired computer professional with over 40 years experience with computers and software.

 

[Computer Guy]

Response to everallm - the Rest of the Story.....

A few minor edits to your process:

Process

1. Juan Manuel is one of many designated individuals in Mexico, Central and South America, the entire Caribbean Basin, along with Canada, England, Japan, Germany, and many more with access to the Etrace system.

2. He receives a request to check an AR15 that was seized

3. Logs onto Etrace, puts in the details and clicks send

4. The request is processed against the ATF database with a match or not and a response is returned (If a match is found, go to step 11).

5. If no match the request can be submitted with a "pretty please can you check back via manufacturer"

6. ATF decides if they want to. (Older firearms are difficult to trace)

7. ATF automatically (System 2000) requests the manufacturer for the name of the distributor the firearm was sold to - or sends a (legally required) phone request

8. ATF then sends a (legally required) request to the distributor who tells them the retailer

9. ATF calls the retailer (or visits) with a (legally required) trace request for the name of the first purchaser (who may have sold the gun years ago)

10. ATF almost never visits the original buyer (they don't want to alert a suspect - even if he sold the gun years ago).

11. ATF tells Juan the name and address of the first purchaser. Juan places the name and address on a "gun trafficker suspect list" in Mexico.
(If Juan is a corrupt Mexican Police Officer, he may tell his criminal associates your name and address)
ATF places the name and address on an ATF "gun trafficker suspect list" in the Firearms Tracing System. Further, whenever a trace identifies you, your name and address is kept permanently in the trace computer system.

It's not a mythical registry - it's a very real firearms registry of some 400 million firearm sales transaction records. Such a registry was forbidden by Congress....

The Firearms Owners' Protection Act, signed into law in 1986, specifically forbids registration of firearms records at 18 U.S.C. 926(a):
"No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners' Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established."

It's also poor police work to identify an innocent suspect who may have sold the gun years ago.

 

[KBintheSLC]

Holy Crap!

 

[Zoogster]

It's also poor police work to identify an innocent suspect who may have sold the gun years ago.

But he is unlikely to ever know he was on that list, and as a result unlikely to complain about it loudly enough for any sort of change.


Also it allows some serious fishing if people understand the serial numbering of different manufacturers.
There is a lot of information in a serial number. Including where it was made, what year/month it was made, and where it was likely distributed commercially before being sold retail.
It also identifies what type of firearm it is.

It would be entirely possible to submit false requests using this information to determine where in say Arizona or Texas firearms are residing.
Looking for a certain make or model gun?
The serial number range for certain models made between certain dates is known to anyone with the above information.

So it is entirely feasible if you wanted to find the name and address of owners of a specific type of firearm likely distributed in a certain region (like a border state).
It would then not be too difficult to pass that information on to criminals within a drug cartel.
They can acquire a list of where certain types of firearms are available within the US. They don't need to act on that knowledge, but if they ever need X type of firearm for Y reason while in the United States they will know exactly where to acquire it.
These are people who have been known to raid houses pretending to be SWAT type teams, complete with uniforms, body armor and even fake police vehicles. (Some of them quite well trained, consider the Zetas were former special forces, and many others are former military and police gone corrupt.) Though they normally target people in the drug business.

A name or address that manages to pop up on the list often enough also clearly means they have a lot of firearms coming and going from their possession. So even if they are not really breaking any laws or trafficking illegally it shows they most likely have a lot of guns at their address because they buy and sell a lot of guns.
So people with large personal collections may find themselves pretty well established on those lists and databases, and also known in foreign (and domestic) locations as a place to find a lot of hardware.
Information that can be used for some rather nefarious purposes.

 

[Computer Guy]

Reply to Zoogster

But he is unlikely to ever know he was on that list, and as a result unlikely to complain about it loudly enough for any sort of change.

True enough, but he might begin to suspect something when the Mexican Police take a special interest in him and detain him next time he goes on vacation in Mexico - or when he shows up on the "No Fly" list.....

A serial number error, a fraudulent or erroneous trace, could put you on the suspect list....

 

[Gungnir]

CG can you put up the source of that article, no offense but if it comes from David Icke, Heribert Illig, or Erik von Daniken, I highly doubt the source.

 

[Computer Guy]

Source of Article

I wrote it.

It was created from ATF primary source material along with other government sources and some news reports.

If you have any questions about it, ask me....