Having been a class 2 manufacturer for 11 years with two retail store fronts, I never thought much of the "rumor" that 4473's were being collected or used to determine a man's collection.  However, I had an audit after Sept11th, where the compliance officers actually took copies of every yellow form I had in my records over the last year. Now, maybe this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't owned my own copy machine. (They knew I had a copier) and as far as them carrying their own zerox machines in their cars, I have some doubts, but suffice to say that my thoughts have changed regarding the privacy of the yellow form. I seriously understand why some law abiding persons would want to purchase from private parties (still a legal activity).  Whether the 4473's will lead to full registration or not....................

Interesting, makes you REALLY wonder!

BTT

I don't know. All the 4473 tells them is that "At one time this person owned this firearm."
Big deal.
My collection is constantly changing. I don't think that any gov't agency knows or cares exactly which guns I own at this point in time. Any one who has every filled out a 4473, a CCW, joined the NRA, a gun range, has flagged themselves as a gunowner for any future confiscation.
So I say "screw it." I am going to buy what guns I want through private sales or dealers.  

Did you charge them for the copies?  

They probably have an investigation going on dealing with a couple of the names and just copied them all so they could see what they could match up.  Maybe they just copied them all so nobody would know who they were looking at?  The 4473 is a pretty difficult database to use to figure out what a guy has, but it's useful in matching a guy to a serial number, which may lead to an indictment.  It's difficult to think of the 4473 as anything buy a registration form nowdays, but in typical government fashion, it's overly complicated for the task.

Ross