Gun lobbyists spent decades building a database of gun owners in the United States. During the 2016 election, it turned the information over to the now-disgraced political consulting group Cambridge Analytica to help make the U.S. presidential election swing their way. It worked and now thousands of gun owners are finding out their names are in databases they never consented to entering.
ProPublica has been reporting on the story about the way gun lobbies, gun stores, and gun manufacturers abuse customer privacy and data for years now. Its latest investigation connects the dots between purchases made decades ago, lobbying firms, and political consultants.
For decades the gun lobbying group the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) worked with manufacturers and stores to figure out who was buying guns in the U.S. The database was built using warranty cards, information from hunting licenses, and data pulled from information gained at the point of sale.
In 2016, when the gun industry was facing what it felt was an existential threat, it pulled together its database of customers and contracted Cambridge Analytica to help them figure out how to get them to vote for Donald Trump. The analytics firm cross-referenced the customer database from the NSSF with other information it had gathered on U.S. voters. It sorted those people into categories and began to micro-target them with ads online.
If you bought a gun, a gun accessory, or ammunition in the U.S. from the 1980s until now, there’s a good chance one of these databases has a profile about you. According to reporting from ProPublica, it knew a potential voter’s income, their debts, religion, personal interests, and online purchase history.
ProPublica got hold of a portion of the database and contacted 6,000 people on it to find out how they felt about being sorted and cataloged by the people they’d bought weapons from. Many were shocked to find out they were on a list and felt their privacy had been violated. One of the interesting details of the story is how little information it took to end up in a database.
“Joseph LeForge, a self-described ‘privacy nut,’ struggled to understand how it could’ve happened. The 74-year-old contractor has no Facebook account or email address and spoke to ProPublica on a flip phone. He wondered if he tripped a wire when he bought shotgun shells over a decade ago. “‘I don’t recall having to give them a driver’s license or anything,” he said, “but I might have.’”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is an American trade association that was formed in 1961 and lobbied on behalf of gun manufacturers ever since. It’s less well-known than the National Rifle Association, but perhaps better at its job. It’s been in trouble with U.S. politicians and regulators several times since its creation.
If an NSSF member steps out of line, they’re punished. In 2000, gun maker Smith & Wesson agreed to work with the Clinton Administration on safer handguns. The NSSF called Smith & Wesson to task over the agreement and stores across the country boycotted the company. They almost went bankrupt. The FTC investigated NSSF for organizing the boycott but dropped the case after a three-year investigation.
Lately, lawmakers have gone after NSSF for its abuse of customer information and connections to Cambridge Analytica. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat in NSSF’s home state of Connecticut, has repeatedly criticized the company for this. “Congress deserves a full explanation of the data collection process, the way the data was used, and the safeguards that NSSF put in place to protect the private information of gun owners,” he said in a letter to the lobbying group in 2022.