Second Amendment

A Visit to a Gun Store Shouldn't Put You on a Government List

Gun registry bans might not be enough to protect gun owners from lists built from license-plate data.

Del Schlangen | 10.5.2026 1:15 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Midjourney)

When Eagle Sports Range in Cudahy, Wisconsin, removed its three Flock Safety cameras in August, general manager Saad Jaber cited broader customer privacy concerns, not misuse at the range. In Cleveland, Georgia, Gun Commanders owner Michael Carter covered his privately owned Flock camera with a trash bag and is having it permanently removed, telling Now Georgia his customers' trust matters more than "any piece of technology." 

Police misuse of plate-reader data has sparked a nationwide backlash against those cameras. Gun owners have an additional worry: A lawful trip to a gun store or range could put them on a government list.

At a Senate hearing on Flock last month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) noted the cameras outside gun shows, stores, and ranges and pointed out that Second Amendment supporters have "long feared national databases of any kind." A week later, he announced he would soon introduce the Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require written approval and audit logs for searches and deletion of most plate data after 10 days. "Law-abiding Americans should not be treated like criminals," he said.

He's right about that, but he should add another rule. None of Hawley's announced safeguards specifically mention gun stores, gun shows, or ranges, and a search that is approved and logged can still return every car that pulled into one of those places.

Producers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) such as Flock claim their vehicle-related intelligence tools can link sightings across multiple locations and cases and surface repeated appearances across time. If an ALPR records vehicles entering and exiting a gun store parking lot, querying those records could produce a list of every........

© Reason.com