"Go to the sporting goods store. From the files obtain forms 4473. These will contain descriptions of weapons, and lists of private ownership." - Red Dawn, 1984.
Is the yellow form is defacto registration? The NICS check doesn't need make/model/serial of course. Make/model/serial gets sent with the NICS request, so it stands to reason that there is a database on the back end. As we find every week, those nice DC folk really like to keep track of what we know/like/say/do, even what we're Googling for.
And even if the information isn't sent to NICS, every FFL has to surrender the last 20 years of yellows on leaving the business, so unless you happen to buy from an FFL who's just starting out, your yellow is going to magical ATF land where it will be databased.
So say there's a registry. Say it's illegal, but it exists. What are your thoughts about this? We've all seen the news stories about guys who get harassed just for having a big gun collection. Do you pay it no mind? Buy whatever the heck you like because this is America and you're not going to be cowed by lawbreaking registrars? On the other extreme do you watch what you buy from FFLs because you know there's a defacto registry?
Or do you think the NICS info is really destroyed after a couple of days and no one cares about the daily stream of yellows coming in to the atf due to FFL retirements?
