GIFFORDS Gun Owner for Safety asks FBI to investigate NSSF gun owner database

WASHINGTON — Today, Malcolm Smith, a member of GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety, wrote to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), asking it to investigate the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) creation of a massive database of gun industry customers and the sharing of that data with Cambridge Analytica after a ProPublica investigation. Read the full letter here. 

The data given to Cambridge Analytica included 20 years of gun owners’ information. The data compiled included financial details, religious affiliations, information on children, and more. It even included women’s data on their underwear purchases and sizes. 

“Gun owners’ privacy is not a partisan or ideological issue. Gun rights groups like Gun Owners of America (GOA) speak out frequently against any database of gun industry consumers. Director Patel has a close working relationship with GOA and has echoed its concerns about gun owner privacy. Surely, then, the FBI understands the importance of ensuring no organization or government agency maintains a secret database of firearm customers and gun owners. As many high-profile hacks and data leaks have shown, private data can easily be mishandled and exploited for nefarious purposes. 

“On behalf of all American gun owners, I request that you investigate this potentially improper collection and exploitation of intimate personal information by the NSSF and the gun industry with the seriousness it deserves.”