Propublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates power abuse. Sign up and receive the biggest story as soon as it’s published.
A group representing firearm owners asked three federal agencies to investigate how major lobbying groups in the gun industry secretly used arms buyers’ intimate details for political purposes.
In making the request, the gun owner cited a Propopublica survey detailing how the National Shooting Sports Foundation presents itself as a fierce advocate for the privacy of firearm owners while handing over sensitive personal information about gun buyers to political operatives. The letter was sent to the FBI, Federal Trade Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, cigarettes, firearms and explosives last week, and was called the NSSF secret program, which lasted for nearly 20 years, “underhand.”
“The privacy of gun owners is not a partisan or ideological issue,” wrote Malcolm Smith, gun owner, safety member. “No matter the industry, it is condemned and cannot be permitted to use private data from customers, such as underwear size or age for children in secret schemes.”
The gun owner for safety has been run since 2019 by Gifford, a gun violence prevention organization co-founded by Arizona Sen. Gabby Gifford, who survived the 2011 assassination attempt. It has nine state chapters and consists of gun owners and second amendment advocates who believe that they will “reduce measurements like those with disabilities, like those in the general sense, like those in charge.”
The ATF admitted to receiving the letter, but there were no other comments. The FBI, FTC, and NSSF did not respond to Propublica’s requests for questions or comments.
The NSSF previously defended data collection, saying, “The activity was within the terms of an individual manufacturer, company, data broker or other entity, and has always been perfectly legal and has been in the past.” The organization represents thousands of firearms and ammunition manufacturers, distributors and retailers, along with publishers and range of firearms. While the NSSF is less well known as the leading lobbyist of the National Rifle Association, the owner of guns, the NSSF is respected and influential by the business, politics and the gun right community.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Propublica he agreed to Smith’s appeal for an investigation. Last November, Blumenthal, then chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, asked the NSSF whether the details of the companies that provided information to the trading group’s database, what kind of customer details were shared, and whether the data was still in use. The trade group did not answer the senator’s questions.
“The NSSF’s disturbing, secret data collection raises serious safety and privacy concerns,” Blumenthal said. “And Americans deserve the answer.”
It is unclear how successful the demand for an investigation will be under the Trump administration, especially given the NSSF’s past political support for the president.
The Propublica survey identified at least 10 gun industry companies, including Glock, Smith & Wesson and Remington. This was passed hundreds of thousands of names, addresses and other personal data to the NSSF, then passed to the NSSF, where details were entered into what would become a large database. The database was used to rally support gun owners’ elections for industry priority candidates running for the White House and Congress.
Privacy experts told Propublica that companies that shared information with the NSSF may be violating federal and state bans on deceptive and unfair business practices. Under federal law, businesses must adhere to their own privacy policies and be clear about how they use consumer information, privacy experts said.
A review of dozens of guaranteed cards from these gun manufacturers found that none of them notified buyers that their details would be used for political purposes. (Most companies designated in the NSSF documents either declined to comment or did not respond to Propublica. One refused to share customer data, while another parent said there was no evidence of data sharing with NSSF under previous ownership.)
In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president for the first time, and as part of a push to help Republicans maintain the Senate, the NSSF worked with consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to turbocharge information about potential voters. Cambridge coincided with 5,000 additional facts that it pulled people in the database from other sources. Details were extensive. In addition to potential voters’ income, debt and religious affiliations, analysts learned whether they liked the work of painter Thomas Kinkade, and whether women in underwear bought it.
Propublica has obtained a portion of the NSSF database that contains names, addresses and other information for thousands of people. Propublica reached out to 6,000 people on the list. Most respondents, including gun owners, expressed anger, surprise or disappointment that they learned to be in the database.
In his letter calling for an investigation, Smith noted that the new FBI director, Kash Patel, spoke in favor of protecting gun owners’ rights of privacy.
“Indeed, at that time, the FBI understands the importance of ensuring that organizations and government agencies do not maintain secret databases of firearm customers and gun owners. As many well-known hacks and data leaks have shown, personal data can easily be mistakenly escaped for evil purposes.
Smith, a 69-year-old retired executive at JP Morgan Bank and a registered Republican, told producer his teenage gun love when his father bought a Remington rifle for bird hunting. Passion intensified over the years, and Smith began to gather guns largely in response to political efforts to limit gun access.
How does Cambridge Analytica use data to misuse the private lives of gun owners?
“Whenever I heard that Nancy Pelosi didn’t like something, I felt like I had to have it,” Smith said.
However, he joined Giffords in 2020 after becoming displeased with extremism in the gun rights world. He said recently that the Ministry of Government Efficiency’s attempts to obtain large quantities of confidential civil data from the Social Security Administration and the IRS had an impact on the government’s demands for action. (Doge officials did not respond to requests for comment.)
“The first disclosure regarding the National Shooting Sports Foundation was the Alert Bell, but now this is a four-alarm fire,” Smith said. “We should have some privacy in our lives. Apparently the NSSF has decided that I don’t need to have it.
