this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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For years, America’s most iconic gun-makers turned over sensitive personal information on hundreds of thousands of customers to political operatives.

Those operatives, in turn, secretly employed the details to rally firearm owners to elect pro-gun politicians running for Congress and the White House, a ProPublica investigation has found.

The clandestine sharing of gun buyers’ identities — without their knowledge and consent — marked a significant departure for an industry that has long prided itself on thwarting efforts to track who owns firearms in America.

At least 10 gun industry businesses, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Marlin and Mossberg, handed over names, addresses and other private data to the gun industry’s chief lobbying group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The NSSF then entered the gun owners’ details into what would become a massive database.

https://www.propublica.org/article/gunmakers-owners-sensitive-personal-information-glock-remington-nssf

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why did the gun manufacturers get the owners' names? Usually the manufacturers sell to dealers and the dealers sell to users, I had thought.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Believe it or not, the article answers that question

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Aha, OP might have included that in the article excerpt:

The data initially came from decades of warranty cards filled out by customers and returned to gun manufacturers for rebates and repair or replacement programs. A ProPublica review of dozens of warranty cards from the 1970s through today found that some promised customers their information would be kept strictly confidential. Others said some information could be shared with third parties for marketing and sales. None of the cards informed buyers their details would be used by lobbyists and consultants to win elections.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do you think there might be some sort of corruption in the gun trade?

Is that even possible?

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If the retailers are leaking the info, they should be mentioned too, of course.

[–] LemmyAtEm@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The real answer is probably just customers doing warranty claims/registration.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

It literally says that's exactly what it is in the article