February 13, 2024

The Honorable Mike Johnson

Speaker of the House of Representatives

The Honorable Steve Scalise

Majority Leader

Dear Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Scalise:

We write to urge you to protect the Second and Fourth Amendment rights of innocent, law-abiding gun
owners from the Biden Administration’s exploitation of a lawless government surveillance loophole.

A September 18, 2023 report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
highlighted how several DHS component agencies, including the Secret Service, bought Americans’
phone location data without a court order.1 DHS is not alone. The Treasury Department Inspector General
in a February 18, 2021 letter to Congress confirmed that the Internal Revenue Service had also purchased
Americans’ phone location data.2 In addition to these examples, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
Defense Intelligence Agency have all admitted to buying Americans’ location data without a warrant.3

Ordinarily, these agencies would need a judge-issued warrant before forcing phone or tech companies to
turn over their customers’ location data. But creative government lawyers have decided that the Fourth
Amendment does not apply to Americans’ sensitive, personal data — if the government buys it from data
brokers. The embrace of this legal loophole by government agencies poses a serious threat to Americans’
privacy. It further undoes Congress’s clear intent in protecting precisely this kind of sensitive information
through enactment of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Location information and
other private information about Americans’ lives, including where an American prays, where and when
they drive their children to school, and if they have visited a gun store or shooting range.

The threat to Americans’ Second and Fourth Amendment rights is not limited to the government’s
purchase of location data. Commercial data brokers openly sell marketing lists containing the name,
address, and other personal information identifying “gun owners”4 and “shooting fanatics,”5 as well as
specialized lists, like “concealed carry - licensed gun owners,”6 “affluent gun owners,”7 and “age 70+;
elderly gun owners.”8 Unfortunately, the same legal loophole that the Biden Administration has embraced
to purchase Americans’ location data could equally apply to the purchase of commercial lists identifying
gun owners.

1
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2023-09/OIG-23-61-Sep23-Redacted.pdf
2
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/Response.pdf
3
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-once-bought-mobile-phone-data-for-warrantless-tracking-other-agencies-still-do-
ad65ebe9; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/politics/dia-surveillance-data.html
4
https://www.amerilist.com/gun-owners-mailing-list
5
https://www.exactdata.com/mailing-lists/shooting-fanatics-us-gun-owners-mailing-list.html
6
https://www.focus-usa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Concealed_Carry.pdf
7
https://dmdatabases.com/databases/consumer-databases/gun-owners-email-list-mailing-list/
8
https://dmdatabases.com/databases/consumer-databases/gun-owners-email-list-mailing-list/
It is vital that any forthcoming legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act close the data broker loophole. Congress now has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to
update our laws to protect Americans’ liberty, Americans’ right to privacy, and the Second Amendment.
The House Judiciary Committee passed two bills last year — the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
and the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act — both of which included identical
language closing this outrageous loophole.

For decades, Congress has legislatively protected gun-owning Americans’ rights. But decades-old privacy
laws will continue in name only if the Biden Administration is allowed to continue this brazen
surveillance of Americans without court orders.

We urge you to ensure the House of Representatives closes the data broker loophole before reauthorizing
any warrantless surveillance powers.

Sincerely,

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Warren Davidson Andy Biggs
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Michael Cloud Clay Higgins
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Andy Harris, M.D. Barry Moore
Member of Congress Member of Congress

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Tom Tiffany Andrew Clyde
Member of Congress Member of Congress

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Thomas Massie Josh Brecheen
Member of Congress Member of Congress
___________________________________ ___________________________________
Keith Self Bill Posey
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S.
Member of Congress Member of Congress

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Lauren Boebert Eric Burlison
Member of Congress Member of Congress

___________________________________ ___________________________________
Troy Nehls Bob Good
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Matt Rosendale Eli Crane
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Alex Mooney Ben Cline
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Dan Bishop Gus Bilirakis
Member of Congress Member of Congress
___________________________________ ___________________________________
Mike Collins Anna Paulina Luna
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Matt Gaetz Andy Ogles
Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Randy K. Weber, Sr. Chip Roy
Member of Congress Member of Congress