Well this is what GOA says about it:
http://gunowners.org/a05252011.htm
As you know, Rand Paul’s amendment would exempt 4473’s (the form all purchasers fill out when they buy a firearm from a licensed dealer) and other gun records from the blanket information demands which Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) can make under the 9/11 legislation.
Without Paul’s exemption, it is possible that the BATFE could go to a secret (FISA) court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a “terrorism investigation” requires it. If such an action were taken, the government would have a list of every gun buyer in the country going back decades.
This is unacceptable and it is a violation of gun owner protections enacted in 1986 as part of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. The McClure-Volkmer Act spells out the purposes for which gun records can be obtained by a law enforcement agency: as part of a bona fide criminal investigation, a trace, or a routine annual inspection. Sen. Paul’s amendment will simply keep the 1986 law’s provisions in place.
It should also be noted that the records in question deal with persons who already underwent the (unconstitutional) background check and were allowed to purchase a firearm. Once again, the dangers of a background check system (which presumes a person is a criminal until proven otherwise) are highlighted, as efforts must constantly be made to keep the government’s hands off the list of honest gun owners.
Rand Paul is awesome.
There is no “list” and BATF has always had all the authority it needs under 1968 GCA to examine any particular pile of 4473’s. Mine have been spot checked any number of times. BATF has zero authority to borrow or copy any particular 4473 and using them to make up a list of gunowners would be an extreme, unproductive, and inefficient waste of effort. When a gun turns up in an event it gets traced using those records which is what they are for. So I have to wonder what the rest of the story actually is——so far it sounds like a big WTF? Besides everybody knows there are 300 million guns in the US and Fed agencies assume everyone has one so again, WTF?