{"id":2459,"date":"2013-03-15T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2013\/03\/15\/informationweek-on-atfs-gun-tracing\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:21:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:21:20","slug":"informationweek-on-atfs-gun-tracing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=2459","title":{"rendered":"InformationWeek On ATF&#8217;s Gun Tracing System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:14006,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.informationweek.com\\\/government\\\/enterprise-applications\\\/atfs-gun-tracing-system-is-a-dud\\\/240150719?cid=SBX_iwk_related_slideshow_default_quickview&amp;itc=SBX_iwk_related_slideshow_default_quickview&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.informationweek.com\\\/government\\\/enterprise-applications\\\/atfs-gun-tracing-system-is-a-dud\\\/240150719?cid=SBX_iwk_related_slideshow_default_quickview&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14007,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.whitehouse.gov\\\/sites\\\/default\\\/files\\\/docs\\\/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20170110232301\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.whitehouse.gov\\\/sites\\\/default\\\/files\\\/docs\\\/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 23:28:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 07:55:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 07:55:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14008,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.whitehouse.gov\\\/the-press-office\\\/2013\\\/01\\\/16\\\/presidential-memorandum-tracing-firearms-connection-criminal-investigati&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.whitehouse.gov\\\/the-press-office\\\/2013\\\/01\\\/16\\\/presidential-memorandum-tracing-firearms-connection-criminal-investigati&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>\nI came across <a href=\"http:\/\/www.informationweek.com\/government\/enterprise-applications\/atfs-gun-tracing-system-is-a-dud\/240150719?cid=SBX_iwk_related_slideshow_default_quickview&amp;itc=SBX_iwk_related_slideshow_default_quickview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an article from InformationWeek today<\/a> that discusses the antiquated system (in their terms) of the BATFE&#8217;s gun trace system. Much of the data used for a gun trace requested by law enforcement must still come from manually looking it up on microfilm or microfiche.<\/p>\n<p>You may remember that President Obama in his list of gun control proposals made tracing of firearms used in crimes part of his plan. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/docs\/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">It is number 12 on the list<\/a> and mandates that all Federal law enforcement agencies submit a trace request for any firearm that they recovered at a crime scene. Obama issued a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/01\/16\/presidential-memorandum-tracing-firearms-connection-criminal-investigati\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Presidential Memorandum<\/a> on this on January 16th.<\/p>\n<p>There are two obstacles to updating the system. The first is organizational and has to do with BATFE&#8217;s priorities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i> ATF CIO Rick Holgate, an experienced technology executive with degrees from Princeton and MIT, is the first to agree. In an hour-long interview with InformationWeek Government at the agency&#8217;s Washington, D.C., headquarters, Holgate described the microfilm system as a &#8220;target of opportunity.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>He would like to replace the microfilm with a modern imaging system capable of processing gun records much faster and more efficiently. A new system would cost about $4 million, Holgate estimates &#8212; not cheap, but a small price to pay to expedite this important process. The ATF&#8217;s tech budget is about $80 million, minus $10 million to $15 million if sequestration takes full effect.<\/p>\n<p>But as important as it is, upgrading the Firearms Tracing Systems hasn&#8217;t risen to the top of the ATF&#8217;s priority list. Holgate has his hands full with a long list of other projects: moving the agency&#8217;s email system to the cloud, making aggregate gun-trace data available in an open format, modernizing and integrating the agency&#8217;s other legacy systems and, most recently, moving its email archive online to facilitate e-discovery. &#8220;It&#8217;s not that [replacing] microfiche isn&#8217;t important,&#8221; Holgate says. &#8220;It just has to compete with other priorities.&#8221;<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The second obstacle is legal. The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 forbids BATFE from creating a national database of gun registrations, sales, or owners. This is as it should be. If the BATFE does get around to upgrading the system, it must do so in a way that makes the data available faster but does not create the forbidden database. The article and the comments section do explore some alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not an IT professional or a computer expert. However, when the BATFE does get around to upgrading their search system, we need to keep on top of it to make sure that they don&#8217;t surreptitiously develop a gun registry. This is where watching detailed budget requests becomes important. It will provide the clues needed to let us know in advance when BATFE plans to start their upgrade.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across an article from InformationWeek today that discusses the antiquated system (in their terms) of the BATFE&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[371,3215,3216],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-batfe","tag-gun-traces","tag-informationweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8953,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}