National Gun Group Looking into Twin Falls Gun Shop, Police Controversy
By Greg Pruett • August 21, 2024The National Association for Gun Rights, based in Colorado, says they are investigating the dispute between the Twin Falls Police Department and several Twin Falls gun shops.
NAGR’s interest in the dispute comes after Idaho Dispatch’s recent article covering the controversy over an online, third-party program called LeadsOnline. LeadsOnline is used by law enforcement agencies nationwide, and pawn shops in Idaho are the ones who primarily use the program.
Police say LeadsOnline helps cut down on stolen property and speeds up their investigations. Several pawn shops Idaho Dispatch has spoken to also say LeadsOnline has “revolutionized” the pawn industry and cut down on stolen property.
However, several gun shops in Twin Falls, QRF, and Homestead Tactical, which operate gun shops rather than pawn shops, say the program requires their customers’ personal information when a firearm is sold to them, which is then turned over to the police. They claim that LeadsOnline acts as a de facto gun registration system and violates Idaho’s constitution against a registration system and Idaho’s firearm preemption law.
After Idaho Dispatch’s article was published, several commenters tagged NAGR on Idaho Dispatch’s X account. NAGR told the commenters they were having their legal department “looking into it.”
Idaho Dispatch contacted NAGR to ask questions about the dispute and spoke with Hannah Hill. Hill is the Executive Director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, NAGR’s legal foundation.
Idaho Dispatch asked Hill what NAGR’s response is to police, shops, or others who say the LeadsOnline program is not a registration system because it only tracks the information of the customer who sold the firearm.
Hill told Idaho Dispatch,
“It’s absolutely a registry. Full stop. Just because it’s not a “complete” registry does not take away from the fact that purchasing (which in many cases equals ownership) is being tracked by the government.”
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Idaho Dispatch also asked Hill to respond to those who say the program is not regulating firearms because the program only tracks information on the customer and their guns.
Hill responded to that inquiry by saying,
“Any government requirement on the manufacture, sale, purchase, or ownership of firearms is by definition a government regulation. If a criminal or civil penalty is attached to noncompliance, it’s a regulation burdening the Second Amendment right.”
NAGR told Idaho Dispatch in response to the dispute overall:
“This independent gun registry of the Twin Falls PD is massively illegal under both the state and federal laws and constitutions, and storing sensitive gun purchase information in private party software has privacy implications as well. Our legal team is taking a very hard look at this situation and will likely be in touch with the perpetrators very soon.”
Christy Zito, Political Advisor to the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, an Idaho-based 2nd Amendment organization, says the ISAA has contacted Idaho lawmakers about the issue, and some of those lawmakers have contacted Attorney General Raul Labrador. Zito said the ISAA is highly concerned about the database and gun owners’ personal information being tracked in the system.
Zito told Idaho Dispatch,
“The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance is very concerned with the Twin Falls dispute. Any time a government agency has a database of citizens’ private personal information that involves firearms, every gun owner should be concerned.
The forced participation of gun shops or pawn shops to use LeadsOnline is a direct violation of Idaho’s firearm preemption law, at the very least. The ISAA, as we always have, is investigating the issue and doing everything we can to protect Idaho’s gun owners.”
Idaho Dispatch followed up with TFPD to ask if they believed LeadsOnline acted as a gun registry, even if it wasn’t intended to be used as one, whether the department threatened QRF and Homestead with misdemeanor charges, and if they believed the use of LeadsOnline to track firearms was a violation of Idaho’s preemption statute. We have not received a response to those questions at this time.
Note: Greg Pruett serves as the President and Founder of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance.
Tags: 2nd Amendment, Christy Zito, Firearms, Greg Pruett, Guns, Idaho Dispatch, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, National Association for Gun Rights, Twin Falls Police Department
Any form of an action requiring information of any type regarding firearm transactions other than the Federally mandated pre purchase form and requires information to be collected and stored, with civil penalties attached to for failure to comply is a defacto form of state controlled registry. Though information regarding a specific firearm/firearms may not be included there is still a record maintained by an agency of a local government indicating ownership or sale of a firearm being maintained and possible breaches of security involving a citizen’s personal information leaving an individual open to harassment or other security issues. Such a record begs acknowledgement of a future in which an agency obtains such information and use it for the purposes of confiscation or worse, the indivual having been connected with a firearm. Often laws or.ordinances are created with the best of intentions but without understanding the full ramifications of the end result. Trade not one of.your liberties for a false.sense of security.
The cops are just lazy. Get out there and investigate. Quit screwing with our freedoms