Posted on 07/12/2012 6:31:08 AM PDT by marktwain
Effective as of this past Monday, the Firearms Transaction Record, widely referred to as the “Form 4473,”which is mandated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for individuals to purchase firearms from licensed dealers, has been modified to require transferees to identify if their “ethnicity” is “Hispanic or Latino,” attorney and author Evan Nappen reported yesterday on the Pro-Gun New Hampshire website.
“Failure to do so will cause potential criminal prosecution and a denial of Second Amendment Rights,” Nappen writes. “The Form 4473 has been around since 1968, but never before has one ethnic group been singled out where individuals have to affirmatively state whether they ARE or ARE NOT a member.”
“What if the ‘ethnicity’ question demanded ‘Jew or Not a Jew’?” Nappen asked. “Would that ethnicity question be acceptable?
“[I]t is offensive and not necessary,” he concluded.” It has nothing whatsoever to do with one’s qualification to purchase a gun.”
Another Form 4473 category curious by its absence in light of protracted U.S. military involvement fighting global and domestic terror is one identifying people of Middle Eastern ethnicity, which is instead apparently lumped into the “White” (Arab) and "Asian" (Pakistani) categories. If that is deemed sufficient for security and law enforcement purposes, why Hispanics/Latinos are being singled out could be perceived as even more offensive, as it apparently presupposes government suspicions requiring they all must undergo a universal cartel affiliation check.
Unchanged on the form, and still a serious cause of discrimination against people of color if the Department of Justice is to be believed, is the requirement for government-issued photo identification. Inexplicably, just as Massachusetts Democrats demanded it at their convention, the NAACP also required media attendees for Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech to show theirs, Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com reported yesterday.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system, require everyone to jump though hoops and prove that they are *not* criminals in order to try, ineffectively, to prevent the few individuals who are not responsible, from having legal access to guns. This is a failed paradigm, and it should be abandoned. To accept the idea that the all gun sales should be monitored by the government, and only allowed to those it deems satisfactory is fundamentally wrong.
The entire idea of the enterprise has always been the death of a thousand cuts, where the restrictions on who can buy, and where, and how and what are continually increased until the number of gun owners is reduced to political insignificance.
This attempt by the Feds to figure out which “groups” of Americans are more or less armed is very unsettling.
It takes little imagination to see how this data could be manipulated to generate civil war.
Justice for Trayvon?
‘“Failure to do so will cause potential criminal prosecution and a denial of Second Amendment Rights,” Nappen writes. “The Form 4473 has been around since 1968, but never before has one ethnic group been singled out where individuals have to affirmatively state whether they ARE or ARE NOT a member.”’
Im not sure this is true. IIRC in the past I’ve always, or at least some times, had to give my race via a check box. I think it varied from ‘white’ to ‘caucasian’ and I cant say what the other choices were b/c they didnt apply. At any rate I never tried leaving that unspecified but I should have. In fact next time I will. If Im denied the govt needs to explain why. I really dont think requiring race would pass legal review.
I filled one of the new 4473s out yesterday and was quite surprised to see the Latino/Hispanic question on there....I kinda chuckled when I saw it since they’ve been doing it to Whites like forever and ever.
If they’d spend as much time/money putting the “bad guys” away as they do managing that bureaucratic paperwork nightmare, we’d all be better off.
Hispanic, Latino are not races, but for crime reporting purposes, they are lumped in with whites. This seems hypocritical at least.
The 4473 should be race, ethnicity neutral.
the 4473 should be eliminated altogether. If you pass an instant background check, or have a CCW, why is it necessary for the government to record the purchase?
It’s correct. If you falsely fill out a 4473 it’s a felony. If you refuse to properly fill out the 4473, we are not allowed to complete the sale.
The form used to ask just for race. Now, it asks if you are latino or not. Then it asks for race.
When we call in the background check, this information is required to be given. I’m under the assumption that DOJ wants this information to compile a statistic to further attempt to justify gun control. but, I could be wrong.
Given the history of the current administration concerning their lack of concern for Civil Rights, I doubt I’m wrong though.
Is there a difference? How can I tell by looking?
The only constitutional question would be: “Are you a Muslim?” as they are, by their own admission, at war with us and want to overthrow the government of the USA and institute their Mental Illness of Sharia as the basis of our laws.
If they check YES then not only should they be denied gun ownership but deported or imprisoned. It IS WAR after all.
Whats correct? My assertion is the race question has been on the form prior to now. I was asking for verification of that.
Youre wrong about filling it out. You can refuse at least the SSN question and be able to proceed. Perhaps you can be denied for not answering other questions but for race I think the ATF wouldn’t win in court. Like your SSN race isnt their business.
It is my understanding, that up to now, you could check any box that you wanted and there was no penaltie. A person's race was decided by the person involved, not by the state. I think there were court rulings to this effect.
Thats really interesting. So, its as I thought this question was always on the form. Was latino added along w/ the penalty? I dont understand how the govt could prosecute unless they were able to research your lineage. Even then a person could possibly mark more than one box and still be correct. Do you have to mark all boxes which apply? It seems to be another F Troop screw up so open ended they could trip anyone they pleased w/ it.
My guess is that you can answer it any way you want and there would be no penalty. Otherwise, the government would have to start maintaining a data base of bloodlines, ethnic neighborhoods, who raised you vs who gave birth, all sorts of unworkable racial/ethnic monitoring of the sort that was done by the Nazis.
How else would they be able to enforce the “veracity” of this question?
The question concerning the SSN is listed as optional. No others are.
Here’s what has changed. It used to be that question 10 on the form was “race” and it listed several different option that you were to choose from any that applied. That question has been modified into two different ones. 10a as it is now called asks if you are or are not of hispanic or latino decent. 10b then asks for race.
The form is now profiling against citizens of latino decent.
I deal with 4473’s every single day. They are quite intrusive now and are going to get worse.
Hey, thanks for that. I filled one out w/i the time frame stated in the article and the new question wasnt on the form. Are there any instructions for filling this out? For those of mixed heritage you could complete this differently each time w/o giving wrong information. Seems a huge waste of time....like the entire form.
I agree. The whole 4473 paperwork and background is Unconstitutional as can be.
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