Mexican "police" will now have access to American Gun owner information. The US government, specifically the ATF has given the Mexican police and other authorities access to gun owner information via the atf's etrace system. The information in this database contains names, addresses, social security numbers, phone numbers, financial data and tagged special level information. The Mexican "authority" would simply only have to indicate that a suspected firearm from the United States was used in a gun related crime to gain access to the database. This provides the corrupt Mexican government officials (read cartels) with access to United States citizens information. It is no secret the level of corruption that exists in Mexico, so one could only imagine who will be receiving the information.

The article broke in the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7193487.stm

One thing to consider that makes this move hideous is that it actually stinks of leftovers from the cooridinated set of amnesty and amnesty related legislations that were expected to be snuck thru this past year.

The ATF supposedly mounted a privacy impact study, which shockingly doesn't mention much about citizen safety, but does acknowledge how misuse of information could jeopardize an investigation. Now Cartels will have access to your information.

http://www.atf.gov/about/foia/pia/priva ... e-pclo.pdf

In the above document the ATF even recognizes this is a threat:
...2.3 Privacy Impact Analysis: Given the amount and type of
information collected, as well as the purpose, discuss what
privacy risks were identified and how they were mitigated.
If this information is accessed by a non-law enforcement individual, it could jeopardize an ongoing
criminal investigation and cause personal injury to law enforcement personnel, cooperating
individuals and witnesses.. For the most part, however, privacy risks are minimal due to the fact that
eTrace accounts are given to cleared ATF employees and law enforcement agencies that have entered into
an MOU with ATF. In accordance with applicable appropriations laws, eTrace users can only access
trace data that originated from their agency. In addition, the eTrace system includes the standard HTTP
Level banner on the bottom of each web page which reads, “You have entered an Official United States
Government System, which may be used only for authorized purposes....
That banner will have the Cartels shaking in their boots!

We have to consider one very disturbing factor which is the fact that most of the crimes committed in Mexico are with fully automatic weapons, which would require a class 3 license and tons of paper work and tax stamps here in the US. Some American selling a hunting rifle to someone has no guilt for participating in Mexico's corruption. This is simply a backdoor to personal information. The etrace system agreement isn't even widely adopted in the US. New Jersey barely signed a special agreement with the ATF at the end of last year and the countries other than Mexico that have access must submit information from the gun used in the crime to the ATF who does a check. So there must be a gun related crime and even then only pertinent data is released, many times an investigation will be conducted in the US without information released to the country involved- for privacy purposes! This is the case with Germany. HOwever, a barbarian country like Mexico will get open access via our consulates in Mexico with a specially modfied Spanish based system to be deployed at their "police" headquarters later!

http://www.atf.gov/press/2008press/0116 ... runner.pdf

In the end giving a country like Mexico and people of the caliber of Mexicans access to a database of any sort, especially one with American names is a recipe for disaster and a violation of our liberties and rights. At least the communist Chinese have hacked our databases and stolen our information, in the case of an enemy that has the mind power of a small child we just simply hand them the information...

http://www.scmagazineus.com/China-has-p ... le/104338/