OK, guys. This is verging on conspiracy.they could monitor ALL gun shops phones with less legal twisting than they were obviously performing for other things. If they record all those 4473 calls and store them they have the ability to convert to a searchable database very quickly
Let's say the NSA gets super-secret authorization to tap gun dealers' phones. The amount of data actually collected would be meager and incomplete for three reasons.
First, not all transactions require a call. In my state, roughly 1/3 of buyers have a carry license, which exempts them from the background requirement. That's tons of transfers, with no phone call.
Second, most dealers don't have a very sophisticated phone system. We're talking one or two lines. During peak times, they don't want to tie up the phones on hold with the FBI. Instead, employees use their mobile phones to call. Am I to assume the NSA was tapping my personal phone as well?
Third, there is an online application for conducting the checks that doesn't involve making a call at all.
I despise the record-keeping requirements, and I detest the NICS system even more. It's a needlessly burdensome measure that does nothing to curb violent crime, and it unfairly puts a layer of potential liability on gun dealers.
But is it a front to build a national database of gun owners? If it is, it's so deficient as to be laughable.