It’s Time for the FBI to Stop Spying on Gun Owners

in Columns

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

If you ever needed proof that the federal government treats gun owners like second-class citizens, look no further than the FBI’s warrantless NICS Monitoring Program.

This isn’t rumor or speculation. This is FOIA-confirmed, judge-protected surveillance of law-abiding Americans whose only “crime” was buying a firearm legally.

As GOA’s Ben explained, the FBI built a back-door system that allows any law-enforcement officer in America to secretly place any gun owner under monitoring for up to six months at a time. No warrant, no probable cause, no notice.

And absolutely no way for the gun owner to challenge it.

Every time the target runs a NICS check during a firearm purchase, the officer who requested surveillance gets an instant notification, a real-time ping tracking your lawful activity.

This is a silent list of Americans being watched simply for exercising a constitutional right.

SEE ALSO: FBI Caught Targeting Gun Owners

And it gets worse. GOA uncovered cases where individuals were placed under unlimited, indefinite NICS monitoring for reasons as flimsy as “subscribes to anti-government ideology,” whatever that means.

That’s protected speech, not a criminal act. One woman was monitored simply because she dated a man accused of threatening a federal official. Another case placed a mother under surveillance because her son was prohibited.

This is guilt by association, weaponized through the federal background check system.

But the biggest red flag?

The FBI is hiding 4,100 pages of documents related to the program. Despite court orders requiring regular document production, the DOJ and FBI have slow-rolled GOA’s FOIA request for over a year and a half.

Even under the Trump administration, federal bureaucrats are stonewalling, protecting a surveillance system they know cannot survive public scrutiny.

If the FBI truly believed this program was lawful, transparent, and justified, they wouldn’t be burying thousands of pages of records in endless “consultations.”

They’re hiding it because the abuse is far more extensive than the handful of examples GOA has already dragged into the light.

Enough is enough. A federal agency should never be allowed to track gun owners without warrants, oversight, or due process.

The NICS Monitoring Program is unconstitutional on its face, and it’s time to end it and expose every page the FBI is still trying to hide.

*** Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica! ***

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Jerry November 21, 2025, 1:34 pm

    As stated by: “dacian
    November 21, 2025, 11:33 am
    If you are not a criminal you have nothing to fear. Surveillance can stop crime and mass murders long before the nut case has a chance to act. Would you want a known criminal buying guns or a person with mental problems or a violent person buying a gun? If not the surveillance system is an excellent idea. You can be sure the present system is watching the Jan 6th people like a hawk and monitoring them for any future violence or insurrection.”

    First line is used by gun grabbers all over. Don’t worry, if you aren’t a criminal we can find a way to make you one. Known criminals or people with mental or violent tendencies buying guns? That’s what the background check is for, or didn’t you know that people adjudged for violent behavior, mental illness, criminal behavior, and drug addictions are all barred from purchasing a firearm. I guess that’s another memo you didn’t bother to read.
    Unless there is reasonable cause, there is no reason to watch someone like a hawk due to their reading preferences, who they date, or who is a family member. Seems you want to have a Gestapo division to watch those you don’t trust. Should we have someone to watch you and dissect every movement you make, every phone call to or from you, where you go and shop, monitor your mail, ask your neighbors to spy on you, follow your children to see who they associate with, spy on your parents, come by your workplace and when the boss asks what’s going on, the reply is “just checking.” Would you like that happen to you even though you might be faithfully following the law, even to never going over the speed limit.
    Remember this has happened before, and not just in other countries. Yep, right here in the ole USofA.

    • dacian December 4, 2025, 2:14 pm

      In reality “today” Dec. 4th they caught the pipe bomber from the Jan 6th insurrection to take over the government by force and install Trump as dictator for life. The surveillance footage showed the Pipe Bomber wearing new Nike shoes and a check on 25,000 purchases in that area led to his arrest today. Here is a classic example of the good surveillance can do, something the Far Right refuse to acknowledge.

      Also surveillance cameras have caught untold thousands of criminals and murderers which otherwise never would have been brought to justice and in the case of serial killers they would have killed many more innocent people before being caught if they ever were caught. The Zodiac killer back in the day before mass surveillance was never caught and laughed about his cold blooded murders for years.

  • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment November 21, 2025, 12:13 pm

    maybe just lock the bad guys up/put them down as inhumanely as possible, that will stop most of the need for gun laws!

    • dacian December 4, 2025, 2:25 pm

      More right wing fantasy that does not square with reality as the Far Right totally ignore all history that runs counter to their ignorance on gun control and its successes. In reality the U.S. has more people in prison today than Russia, China, and North Korea combined and has it stopped mass murders or reduced homicides? Hardly, we have the most mass murders of all the countries in the world and we have the most gun homicides which usually exceed 44,000 a year. The Far Right Fanatic Charlie Kirk once stated “We have to accept a certain number of gun deaths to uphold the 2nd Amendment. Was it not ironic he was next on the hit list of a madman.

      The Radical Far Right scream “Zero Gun Control” and offer zero solutions to stop the madness. In reality Europe and Asia have far less gun homicides and mass murders because they vet everyone that buys a gun and no gun, even second hand guns, cannot be sold without paperwork, yet the Far Right Fanatics scream “no gun control” because of their out of control paranoia.

      I might add Europe is awash in guns despite strict gun control and a buddy of mine who had a girlfriend in Asia was astonished when she showed him “full auto” weapons she “legally” owned. Something we here in Capitalvania, U.S. of Hey, are not allowed to own unless they are old worn out second hand guns now sold at prices so high only a millionaire can afford to buy one. Strange registration let people in Asia own full auto weapons but not here in Capitalvania.

  • dacian November 21, 2025, 11:33 am

    If you are not a criminal you have nothing to fear. Surveillance can stop crime and mass murders long before the nut case has a chance to act. Would you want a known criminal buying guns or a person with mental problems or a violent person buying a gun? If not the surveillance system is an excellent idea. You can be sure the present system is watching the Jan 6th people like a hawk and monitoring them for any future violence or insurrection.

    • Kane November 23, 2025, 10:22 pm

      Not surprised that dacian has little respect for the 4th Amendment after his often-stated disregard for the 2nd Amendment. Still, I feel pretty sure dacian would get bent out of shape if voter id was required by all citizens who should “have nothing to fear.” Wonder how many names dacian could list of people that were charged with “insurrection” on J6.

  • Richard Wayne November 21, 2025, 9:53 am

    Sounds like a bunch of BS to me.

  • GM1-Mic November 21, 2025, 8:55 am

    I’m on the fence when it comes to the NICS system. I think it does a lot of good when used in the correct way. But all it takes is a bunch of liberal gun hating Mook’s to use it incorrectly and that turns it into a weapon.
    I just think if you stay on the right side of the law and don’t do stupid shit, you’ll be fine. She dated a guy who threatened a federal officer. For him, it’s warranted for her… Not so much. But who knows, they could’ve turned into a Bonnie and Clyde thing.
    I like the NICS system when it’s used correctly as it allows the federal government to keep an eye on gun purchasers and you never know when one of the thousands of Muslims that came into this country illegally under the Biden administration, will be joining the terrorist group in the Northeast to wage jihad on the US. I kind of like it for that Security.
    I don’t do anything wrong so I have no fear of the government keeping an eye on me.

    • dacian December 4, 2025, 2:28 pm

      In reality despite your out of control prejudice most mass murders in the U.S. are committed by indigenous punk White guys not Muslims. There are 6 million legal Muslims in the U.S. and they commit a minor amount of murders compared to the Far Right White Fanatics.

  • Andy November 21, 2025, 8:20 am

    Time to do away with NICS anti constitutional targeting of Americans by gov. Communists .