FOIA Reveals ATF Surveillance On Social Media
BY Herschel Smith
2 weeks, 6 days ago
But that isn’t what I want you to do. I want you transferred to the border to crack down on immigration and crime, and/or hunt gangs down elsewhere and rid our nation of the gangs. I want you to do something where you don’t know if you’re going to come home safely at the end of your shift. Failing those two options, I just want you to hunt for a new job.
Otherwise, what use are you?
On March 3, 2025 at 9:42 pm, Ozark Redneck said:
Good video from GOA. It will be interesting to watch the changes coming soon (I hope) to the ATF.
On March 4, 2025 at 12:49 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
It isn’t only on social media. At a large outdoor sports club where I used to belong, once day there was a young couple circulating around chatting people up. They approached me, saying that they were FA collectors and asked what I was shooting that day, and before I could say or do anything, the female got her cell-phone camera up and snapped a photo of the rifle I had on the shooting table. Momentarily in shock at this invasion of privacy, I didn’t react before they went on their way.
After recovering my composure and berating myself for making such a rookie mistake, I concluded that they had been undercover cops of some kind. Perhaps state police, or even ATF.
They didn’t get my name or identifying information, nor the serial number – but that photo now resides in some database somewhere. Or maybe on someone’s PC.
In any case, if you are not already taking precautions to protect your privacy, I urge you to begin doing so. I certainly have. While I wouldn’t call myself paranoid these days, I am very selective about who knows anything about my involvement in the shooting sports.
As far as the AFT is concerned, harassing otherwise law-abiding gun-owner citizens doesn’t qualify as an honest day’s work in my view. The agency was formed, or so we the voters were told, to go after “the worst of the worst” in terms of violent criminals, those trafficking in arms in the underworld or internationally, and the like.
But harassing innocent people is so much easier – and considerably safer – than honest law-enforcement and investigative work, isn’t it?
Personally, I categorize the ATF in the same group as the FBI and CIA: Organizations whose integrity is so suspect and whose corruption is so deep that I am skeptical they can be repaired at all. And even if they can be reformed and repaired, how will they ever win the trust of the American people again after decades of lying to the public in ways great and small?
On March 4, 2025 at 5:48 am, Mark Matis said:
Federal “Law Enforcement” favorite tactic is “infiltrate to incite and indict”.
If you involved in ANYTHING they do not like, and have any other participants in that activity, expect a significant percentage of those others to be Feds, or working with them. Never forget Hutatree militia, Bundy Ranch, J6, and Malheur, where the Feds outnumbered the real decent human beings!
On March 4, 2025 at 9:44 am, george 1 said:
Georgiaboy61:
A good way to handle that is to get out your own phone and snap of few pictures of the nice officers. So you like to record photos of people’s property? I like to record undercover agents of the government. Then go photograph their vehicle license plates.
Share you photos with other members who use the range.
On March 4, 2025 at 1:29 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
Anyone who’s been on the internet for any amount of time, especially if they participate on any gun forums, knows the forums are monitored by the feds. Some gun forums I used to frequent even warned people about it, but people would still get busted for posting a picture of something they shouldn’t have, or saying they’d made something that caught Sauron’s attention.
Looks at Matt Hoover – in federal prison for having a picture of a part etched into metal. He showed it on his youtube podcast and caught a machinegun charge. He never did anything else with it, but ATF decided a picture is an actual machine gun.
On March 5, 2025 at 1:33 am, Rick said:
There is a website specifically for the buying and selling of firearms and related items. It is limited only to a certain state which allows private sales.
Every now and then I see an offer to sell which screams fed. I reckon these are the bait to entrap unsuspecting buyers. Some offerings are too good to be true. These make me think they are stolen and the criminal is looking for fast cash.
Sure, there are prohibited persons wanting to buy. But not everyone is a criminal. Violating 4th A and other civil rights is a downright terrible way to try to apprehend criminals. It it itself a crime to do so.