Appeals Court Issues Ruling Allowing California Government to Continue Doxing Gun Owners
Jose Nino
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On November 24, 2023, California’s Appeals Court for the 4th District Division issued a ruling where it allowed the state government to continue sharing gun owners’ personal information with so-called “gun violence’ researchers,” per a report by The Western Journal. “California’s Department of Justice had been permitted to share ‘identifying information of more than 4 million gun owners’ collected by the state during the background check process for firearms purchases with ‘qualified research institutions,’ ostensibly to aid in the study of gun-related accidents, suicides and violence.”
The “personal information” that is shared generally consists of “names, addresses, phone numbers, and any criminal records, among other things.”
According to the bill (Assembly Bill No. 173) that green lit this power grab, there exists “a database of gun violence restraining orders, and a database of firearm precursor parts purchases.”
Gun violence researchers enjoy a plethora of private information thanks to these databases as noted below:
“The DROS [Dealer Record of Sale] system and the associated AFS [Automated Firearms System] and APRF [Ammunition Purchase Records File] databases create a unique data set regarding gun and ammunition ownership not available anywhere else. Researchers in California have used this data to conduct empirical research regarding firearm-related violence for some time.”
“The court’s decision is a victory in our ongoing efforts to prevent gun violence,” Attorney General Rob Bonta declared in a press release. “AB 173’s information-sharing serves the important goal of enabling research that supports informed policymaking aimed at reducing and preventing firearm violence. Research and data are vital in our efforts to prevent gun violence in California and provide a clear path to help us save lives.”
In an era where state-sponsored hacker groups and leftist hacker collectives abound, having such sensitive information in government hands is a dangerous proposition. Moreover, any ambitious leftist government with such information at their disposal could potentially use it to directly persecute gun owners. Those are the many dangers of allowing governments to have access to people’s personal information.
California always serves as a cautionary tale of the dangers concerning gun control. Gun owners in red states should always take a look at what’s going on in California to see what’s potentially coming down the pike.
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