However, several gun shops in Twin Falls, QRF and Homestead Tactical, which operate gun shops rather than pawn shops, say the program demands their customers’ personal information when they are sold a firearm, which is then turned over to police. They claim LeadsOnline acts as a de facto gun registration system and violates the Idaho Constitution, which prohibits a registration system and Idaho’s gun preemption law.
After the Idaho Dispatch article was published, several commenters tagged NAGR on the Idaho Dispatch X account. NAGR told the commenters that their legal department was “taking care of it.”
Idaho Dispatch contacted NAGR to ask questions about the dispute and spoke with Hannah Hill, executive director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, NAGR’s legal arm.
Idaho Dispatch asked Hill how NAGR is responding to police, stores or others who say the LeadsOnline program is not a registration system because it only collects information from the customer who sold the firearm.
Hill told Idaho Dispatch:
“It’s definitely a registry. Period. Just because it’s not a ‘complete’ registry doesn’t change the fact that purchase (which in many cases is synonymous with ownership) is tracked by the government.”
Idaho Dispatch also asked Hill to respond to those who say the program does not involve regulating firearms because it simply collects information about customers and their weapons.
Hill responded to this request by saying:
“Any government regulation concerning the manufacture, sale, purchase, or possession of firearms is, by definition, a government regulation. If noncompliance imposes a criminal or civil penalty, it is a regulation that impairs the Second Amendment right.”
NAGR told Idaho Dispatch in response to the dispute overall:
“This independent Twin Falls Police Department firearm registry is massively illegal under both state and federal laws and constitutions, and storing sensitive gun purchase information in private party software also has privacy implications. Our legal team is reviewing this situation very closely and will likely be in touch with the perpetrators very soon.”
Christy Zito, policy adviser for the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, an Idaho-based Second Amendment organization, says the ISAA has reached out to Idaho lawmakers about the issue, and some of those lawmakers have reached out to Attorney General Raul Labrador. Zito said the ISAA is very concerned about the database and the personal information of gun owners being tracked in the system.
Zito told Idaho Dispatch:
“The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance is very concerned about the Twin Falls dispute. Any time a government agency has a database of citizens’ private personal information involving firearms, every gun owner should be concerned.
Forcing gun stores or pawn shops to participate in LeadsOnline is, at a minimum, a direct violation of Idaho’s gun laws. As always, ISAA is investigating the issue and doing everything it can to protect Idaho gun owners.”
Idaho Dispatch asked the TFPD if they believed LeadsOnline was acting as a gun registry even though it was not intended as such, if the department had threatened QRF and Homestead with misdemeanor charges, and if they believed using LeadsOnline to track firearms was a violation of Idaho’s preemption law. We have not yet received a response to these questions.
Note: Greg Pruett is president and founder of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance.
Keywords: 2nd Amendment, Christy Zito, firearms, Greg Pruett, weapons, Idaho Dispatch, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, National Association for Gun Rights, Twin Falls Police Department
