ATF Accused of Spying on Gun Owners

The continuing controversy over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) utilizing facial recognition software program to determine gun house owners has raised the ire of the top of the U.S. Home of Representatives Home Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Authorities Surveillance.

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, despatched a letter to ATF Appearing Director Kash Patel on March 27 demanding details about the company’s use of facial recognition software program and synthetic intelligence (AI) to “determine gun house owners.”

“As Chairman of @JudiciaryGOP’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Authorities Surveillance, I’m asking @Kash_Patel for paperwork on ATF’s potential abuse of facial recognition expertise to surveil law-abiding gun house owners,” Rep. Biggs posted on X. “I’ll at all times defend People’ proper to privateness.”

Based on a current Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) report, ATF has entry to “numerous facial recognition methods together with Clearview AI,2 Vigilant Options, and different methods owned by different federal, state, native, tribal, or territorial legislation enforcement companies” and “carried out a minimum of 549 facial recognition searches on gun house owners” over a two-and-a-half 12 months interval.

“The Subcommittee has issues about ATF’s use of facial recognition and AI packages and the consequences that its use has upon Americans’ Second Modification rights and rights to privateness,” Biggs’ letter acknowledged. “Latest research element how federal companies, together with ATF, have improperly applied facial recognition expertise. A June 2021 report from GAO confirmed that ATF used facial recognition owned by outdoors entities and, at the moment, lacked any established mechanisms ‘to trace what non-federal methods with facial recognition expertise are utilized by [ATF] workers to assist investigative actions’ and ‘to evaluate the dangers of utilizing such methods, together with privateness and accuracy-related dangers.’”

Rep. Biggs and his subcommittee are additionally involved that current reviews that ATF has discontinued use of facial recognition software program may not be correct.

“GAO reported that, as of April 2023, ATF ‘had halted’ its use of facial recognition companies. A current report by Senator Ron Johnson on the July 2024 tried assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, nevertheless, revealed that ‘ATF was apparently requesting … pictures of [the shooter] for facial recognition functions.’ This data raises issues about whether or not ATF continues to own and doubtlessly use facial recognition expertise regardless of ATF’s claims on the contrary.”

Biggs and his subcommittee introduced Patel with a listing of requests for data they wished to obtain from the ATF. The record included all paperwork and communications between ATF and business facial recognition expertise service suppliers referring or referring to ATF’s use of facial recognition expertise, all inside ATF paperwork and communications, together with memoranda, between ATF headquarters officers and company area places of work referring or referring to the usage of facial recognition expertise and all paperwork and communications between the ATF and any non-federal legislation enforcement company or division, together with state, native, tribal, territorial and nongovernment entities, referring or referring to the usage of facial recognition expertise.

The Congressman gave Patel and the ATF till April 10 to offer the requested paperwork.