You're absolutely right, Jim. My little raggedy-ass province of Nova Scotia passed a law six years ago to protect Canadians from the Patriot Act, as did British Columbia. Enormous amounts of Canadian data are stored in places like Texas.

Nova Scotia amended the "Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to address the perceived threat to privacy posed by the USA Patriot Act if the processing or storage of personal information is outsourced by Nova Scotia public bodies to companies operating in the US (or US companies operating in Canada)."

Canadian private businesses pulled data storage from the US because they couldn't permit the FBI or any other US agency rooting through their files. When Nova Scotians on a peninsula jutting into the North Atlantic make legislation to protect the integrity of information, Americans realize what's going on, too.

Another point is that commerce registers highly in the minds of men---sorry, the gender is an age thing. The FFLs seem a fragile link in protecting privacy. Guns are their bread and butter, reporting a regulation. Are their voluminous ledgers in pen and ink as in Dickens? Or filed digitally as you and I do our business?