Very good point that I haven't seen given much attention yet. I spoke with an attorney today who specializes in Texas gun trusts and asked about this specifically. She hasn't given it much thought or done any research on this, but thought it likely that the form copies sent to CLEOs as notification would become public records which could be requested under Texas public information laws. Remembering how reporters in New York several years ago created an online map of gun owners living in NY, I would NOT want this information available to the press or anyone else.Dutchster wrote:The only thing that bothers me about the notification aspect is what about public records laws? In many states if you write a letter to an elected official like a sheriff it becomes a public record. Unless state law provides an exception for Form 1s/4s sent under this new rule everyone's supposedly confidential tax forms will be out there in the public record.
The ATF justifies this breach of taxpayer privacy by saying that since it's not the ATF sending the form to the CLEO but rather the transferee it's all legit. Perhaps, but that also means that the person receiving that form is under no obligation to protect it, and indeed may have an affirmative duty to retain it for public inspection.
I did read up a bit on Texas' public information laws on the AG website. I think we would either need an AG decision to protect these forms, or possibly legislative action. From what I found, the problem with the AG route is that I'm not sure we as individuals could request such an AG decision. It appears that the CLEO would have to recognize a potential privacy problem upon receiving a public information request, then choose to request a decision from the AG rather than just handing over the records. Once a decision is made by the AG, it would apply state-wide, but who knows how many CLEOs might simply release records instead of going to the trouble of requesting a decision from the AG (especially if that particular CLEO doesn't like Title II weapons in civilian hands anyway).
I've been on the fence about getting into Title II stuff for a while, but this is lighting a fire under me.