Seems NJ developed a program designed to circumvent the Tiahrt Amendment, it’s been around for a short time, and thankfully it seems that only Law Enforcement has access to the info contained within.
Here’s how it works (from Jan 28, 2008)
The answer is the Tiahrt Amendment, a federal law that prevents the BATF from sharing federal gun data with any police agency other than the requesting jurisdiction.
For instance, if the BATF traces guns seized from gangs operating in Newark, East Orange and Irvington back to the same source in Pennsylvania, it can only share the data with the requesting department. If Newark requests the trace, then East Orange, Irvington, the state and Essex County will remain in the dark.
But under NJ Trace, New Jersey becomes the first state to circumvent this legislation by making the State Police the requesting agency and making the entire state one geographic jurisdiction. Very smart. And perfectly legal.
UPDATE: Broken link = me not being able to find the original article on nj.com
Cemetery's Gun Blob 