{"id":108887,"date":"2025-04-01T11:47:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=108887"},"modified":"2025-04-01T11:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:47:31","slug":"108887","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=108887","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoland.com\/2025\/03\/atf-facial-recognition-scandal-deepens-chairman-biggs-demands-records-as-gun-owners-sound-the-alarm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ATF facial recognition: Chairman Andy Biggs seeks records as gun owners sound alarm<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATFHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ATFHQ<\/a> is using facial recognition to identify gun owners is UNACCEPTABLE.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepAndyBiggsAZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RepAndyBiggsAZ<\/a>, for fighting to protect the privacy of law-abiding gun owners by taking action on this GOA-breaking report &amp; bringing it to Kash Patel.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wPahwbIgWy\">pic.twitter.com\/wPahwbIgWy<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nIoB6XNMUa\">https:\/\/t.co\/nIoB6XNMUa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GunOwners\/status\/1905667618394022199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Gun owners across America have every reason to be outraged. According to a March 27, 2025,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepAndyBiggsAZ\/status\/1905623901805101230\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-uri=\"234defe9609b6ad3efcfff6616d5c433\">letter from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ),<\/a>\u00a0the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been\u00a0<strong>secretly using facial recognition technology to track and identify gun owners<em>\u2014all without sufficient oversight, transparency, or even basic training for agents.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Biggs, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, is now demanding that Acting ATF Director Kash Patel hand over all documents relating to the agency\u2019s use of facial recognition software. The call for answers follows multiple bombshell Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports and revelations that the ATF conducted at least 549 facial recognition searches between 2019 and 2022, often on law-abiding Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cThe Subcommittee has concerns about ATF\u2019s use of facial recognition and AI programs and the effects that its use has upon American citizens\u2019 Second Amendment rights and rights to privacy,\u201d Biggs wrote.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>A Pattern of Overreach<\/h3>\n<p>This latest scandal adds to a growing list of examples proving that the federal government simply cannot be trusted with gun owner data. As AmmoLand News previously reported, the ATF has flirted with or outright pursued unconstitutional surveillance for years\u2014compiling digitized firearm transaction records and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoland.com\/2021\/11\/old-dealers-records-prompt-concerns-of-backdoor-gun-registry\/\" rel=\"\" data-uri=\"c8a630f6de42ff6aa92f93e78170880e\">maintaining nearly 1 billion records<\/a>\u00a0at its National Tracing Center.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The use of facial recognition, powered by commercial platforms like Clearview AI and Vigilant Solutions, is the newest tool in the ATF\u2019s surveillance arsenal. These systems allow agents to run a person\u2019s face against databases scraped from social media and public images\u2014often without a warrant, a court order, or even a written policy on privacy.<\/p>\n<p>A GAO report from June 2021 warned that ATF had no training protocols and no safeguards in place when using the technology. In some cases, ATF officials didn\u2019t even know that agents were sending photos to private commercial services. As of April 2023, ATF claimed it had stopped using these tools\u2014but further investigation reveals they\u2019ve simply outsourced the searches to state and local partners instead.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Connected to Trump Assassination Attempt<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Things came to a head after the July 13, 2024, attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoland.com\/2025\/02\/atfs-facial-recognition-tied-to-trump-assassination-attempt\/\" rel=\"\" data-uri=\"74ad397fed78a09b155929e87eec5f8c\">Senator Ron Johnson revealed that ATF received and used facial\u00a0<\/a>images of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks during the investigation\u2014despite the agency claiming it had halted facial recognition use months earlier.<\/p>\n<p>This contradiction has renewed calls from gun rights advocates to strip ATF of biometric surveillance powers completely. Critics are now warning that if the ATF can use this technology on a presidential assassin,<em>\u00a0it can use it on any American it doesn\u2019t like\u2014including anyone who buys a gun, posts online about their rights, or dares to oppose the government\u2019s gun control agenda.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>A Registry in Disguise?<\/h3>\n<p>For years, Second Amendment defenders have warned that the ATF is quietly building a national gun registry. Now, with access to AI-powered facial recognition, the agency may not even need your name\u2014they can find you by your face.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\"><strong>A GOA spokesman has warned in the past that facial recognition combined with ATF firearm records could amount to \u201ca national gun registry by another name\u201d\u2014a path that leads to firearm confiscation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With Congress debating funding for \u201cLaw Enforcement Advanced Analytics,\u201d there\u2019s growing concern that taxpayer dollars will be funneled into expanding the surveillance state\u2014this time targeting peaceful gun owners.<\/p>\n<h3>Biggs\u2019 Demands<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Chairman Biggs\u2019 letter to the ATF is a direct response to the agency\u2019s abuses. He\u2019s demanding:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All internal and external communications between the ATF and\u00a0<strong>facial recognition providers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>All contracts,\u00a0<strong>payments<\/strong>, and agreements related to\u00a0<strong>biometric surveillance<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>All emails, memos, and\u00a0<strong>instructions from ATF leadership<\/strong>\u00a0regarding use of the technology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This investigation could blow the lid off one of the most serious privacy violations in recent memory.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government has already shown it can\u2019t secure its own data. It leaked a terrorist watchlist, failed to protect tax information, and even lost sensitive biometric<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/08\/17\/afghanistan-taliban-military-biometrics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-uri=\"ec28429dddd668a14c9b17fd56c6c6ac\">\u00a0records in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/a>Now they want gun owner data, and they want to identify us by our faces?<\/p>\n<p>The Second Amendment isn\u2019t just under attack in courtrooms and legislatures\u2014it\u2019s being chipped away in secret, behind the glow of surveillance screens. Gun owners must demand Congress put a stop to this overreach before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATF facial recognition: Chairman Andy Biggs seeks records as gun owners sound alarm The fact that @ATFHQ is using facial recognition to identify gun owners is UNACCEPTABLE. Thank you, @RepAndyBiggsAZ, for fighting to protect the privacy of law-abiding gun owners by taking action on this GOA-breaking report &amp; bringing it to Kash Patel.pic.twitter.com\/wPahwbIgWy https:\/\/t.co\/nIoB6XNMUa \u2014 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=108887\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,15,64,50,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucraps","category-business","category-deceit","category-goobermint","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108888,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108887\/revisions\/108888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}