I am not sure why it is amusing? The interpretation is correct:
The background system is called NICS [1], and all information submitted to it is destroyed after 1 day. The system only outputs PROCEED or DENY to the FFL when someone is being checked for a firearms purchase.
1 - "Per Title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 25.9(b)(1), (2), and (3), the NICS Section must destroy all identifying information on allowed transactions prior to the start of the next NICS operational day. If a potential purchaser is delayed or denied a firearm and successfully appeals the decision, the NICS Section cannot retain a record of the overturned appeal."
> There's no telling how many guns we have in America—and when one gets used in a crime, no way for the cops to connect it to its owner. The only place the police can turn for help is a Kafkaesque agency in West Virginia, where, thanks to the gun lobby, computers are illegal and detective work is absurdly antiquated. On purpose.
> That's been a federal law, thanks to the NRA, since 1986: No searchable database of America's gun owners. So people here have to use paper, sort through enormous stacks of forms and record books that gun stores are required to keep and to eventually turn over to the feds when requested. It's kind of like a library in the old days—but without the card catalog. They can use pictures of paper, like microfilm (they recently got the go-ahead to convert the microfilm to PDFs), as long as the pictures of paper are not searchable. You have to flip through and read. No searching by gun owner. No searching by name.
I am guessing the parent is referring to the “Acquisitions and Dispositions” bound book, which up until recently had to be kept on paper. It is permissible to keep these records in software if of the last year or two.
These books are kept by firearms sellers (FFL) and must be present to the ATF upon request
