Pending USSC Case: US Dept of Treasury v. City of Chicago

"There is simply no reasonable expectation of privacy involved in the purchase of firearms. And the recovery of a firearm by the authorities in the course of a criminal investigation is even less private," the Supreme Court was told by Lawrence Rosenthal, Chicago's attorney.

I find this alarming actually. The possibility of the nature and background in investigations of a personal and possible security issue is so wide that I dont agree with it being any less private than releasing information regarding other criminal cases.

Im not understanding Chicagos interest in this, while we are all fighting the war on crime it has to be a balanced issue and what exactly is it they would do with more personal information?

The City of Chicago's interest is in their fishing expedition. That want a complete list of every firearms seller, and buyer and well as the makers of those firearms that have been used in any crime because they hope they might be able to find something useful in the civil suit against gun makers.

Unlike other releases where they would have to show that the data contains something relevant to their case, here they want all the data and they want to decide if it's relevant later.

I'd also dispute Rosenthal's statement. When I purchase a Firearm I fill out and sign a form that has a Privacy Act Statement on it. It states exactly what that information will be used for and that it will not be used for any other purposes. Doesn't that create a "reasonable" expection that the data will only be used for the purposes listed on the form?

The Supreme Court ruled recently that a bookstore can not be forced to provide law enforcement with a customers information in the course of a criminal investigation because it could violates customers 1st Amendment rights through intimidation. I don't see how this would be any different. If anything it is a less compelling case since the City's suit against the gun makers is a civil suit, not criminal.

gotcha...a civil suit on gun makers, it certainly doesnt have a place rifling through criminal files for what it could possibly try to link to something else, and especially not when it poses more of a threat than an assist to anyone but itself.

Criminal files might contain something useful for a civil suit but they're supposed to show that the files need to be released to prove that. They have to go to a judge and say"we need file x, y anbd z as evidence of our case." In this suit they want ALL the files and they'll sort them out later.

My qualm with their case is this: A gun shop legally sells a gun to a legal buyer who then sells it legaly, to someone else who then has it stolen from their house (which they properly report to authorities..) and it is eventually used in a crime after passing hands illegally several times.

Who's names will end up printed in the papers for the "Guns used in crimes!" headlines? Why should a gun shop and legal owners that had nothing to do with the crimes have their names/reputations dragged through the mud? The only people's names that won't end up getting printed are the ones that were involved in the illegal aspects.

Exactly

EX: What about the undercover officer who has his name now all over the place because of some issue with a gun registered in his name, doesnt exactly help in the criminal issue now does it?

For at least 100 years, Chicago has had to confront and attempt to control gangs. To date, little has really been accomplished. Regardless of how the Supremes rule, Chicago gangs will still be able to get and use guns in crime-related activities.