GOA Expresses Concerns About ATF’s Use of Facial Recognition on Gun Owners

Gun owners tend to have a certain degree of concern. Few will show photographs of themselves with guns and view any effort to change that as some kind of ATF ploy to figure out who owns guns in the first place. Many will joke about the guns they used to own before they lost them in that tragic boating accident. 

In short, they don’t want to acknowledge they have guns because they don’t want to advertise it to the feds. All of that data could be useful if they decide to confiscate guns.

The problem? It seems they don’t need any of that and are using something very different and far more concerning.

Several reports now indicate that ATF has access to and utilizes facial recognition technology to identify gun owners. In fact, two Government Accountability Office reports confirm that ATF does have access to various facial recognition systems including Clearview AI, Vigilant Solutions, and other systems owned by other federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial law enforcement agencies.

The Government Accountability Office described the Clearview AI database as:

“A web-based facial recognition service using 30+ billion facial images sourced from publicly available websites, including news media, mugshot, and social media websites, among others.”

A 2021 GAO report found that ATF did not have sufficient accountability mechanisms “to track what non-federal systems with facial recognition technology are used by employees.”

According to testimony given to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, ATF:

“Initially used these services without requiring their staff to take training on topics such as how the technology works, what photos are appropriate to use, and how to interpret the results.”

GAO scolded federal agencies, stating that they “must consider the potential impact of its use on civil rights and civil liberties because the potential for error and the potential to misidentify someone could lead to the arrest and prosecution of an innocent person.”

GAO was also concerned that government use of facial recognition technology can have “a chilling effect on an individual’s exercise of their First Amendment rights.”

Similarly, ATF’s use of Facial Recognition Technology could have a chilling effect on the People’s exercise of their Second Amendment rights.

According to GAO, ATF is reported to have conducted at least 549 facial recognition searches on gun owners between October 2019 and March 2022.

The ATF claims they halted the practice, but a 2024 report suggests it’s still in use.

What’s more, the police in New Jersey were using the same software to see if suspects owned guns before arrests. The attorney general ended the practice calling it “racist and inaccurate.” Which it was. Especially since any facial recognition database built by the ATF would only include lawful gun buyers.

And New Jersey has registration. They could look up the exact same data with state-owned software.

The problem here is pretty simple. If the ATF is continuing to collect facial recognition data of lawful gun owners, it won’t do anything to stop the illicit gun trade. It will, however, be a handy tool in the case of gun confiscation. They’ll know who to look for and why they’re looking for them.

All of the efforts to minimize your footprint as a gun owner, gone in an instant.

Meanwhile, criminals trade guns back and forth only to commit horrible crimes with them, getting them by stealing them from lawful gun owners, and they won’t be in those databases anywhere.

They represent the problem with violent firearm-related crime, but they’ll essentially be exempt from tracking by our government.

This needs to end and end now.