have you ever really wished you could just disappear? poof? our next guest says he knows how to eliminate every piece of information that exists about you and all it takes is three simple steps. joining us right now is the author of how to disappear. why would people want to disappear? it s usually a stalker, people in a bad business situation and looking to move on. no fingerprints. you say there are three ways to do it. the three keys are misinformation, disinformation and reformation. let s start with the first one, misinformation. locating all the information known about you. when somebody is looking for you or hunting you down, they re looking are for the information you left behind. paper records. paper. contact numbers. public records.
personal information was misused. well, it ll probably come as no surprise that we are the most armed country in the world. and few things divide america more than the gun control debate. so far, nothing we ve done has been able to stop some weapons from getting into the wrong hands. and finding them is more than a full-time job. our carol costello live in washington this morning with a look at the life of a gun in this a.m. original. good morning, carol. good morning, john. the atf is the federal agency responsible for tracing firearms used in crimes. with over 340,000 traces performed just last year, that s a whole lot of work. especially when each trace has to be done by using paper records and microfilm and telephones. there are no shortcuts. reporter: it all looks so the office. but what goes on behind these cubicals in the tiny town of
a whole lot of work. especially when each trace has to be done by using paper records, microfilm and telephones. there are no shortcuts. reporter: it all looks so the office, but what goes on behind these cubicals at the atf tracing center in the tiny town of martinsburg, west virginia, can save a life or solve a violent crime. chief charlie hauser. most investigators get to work on 10 or 20 investigations per year, i m involved in 350,000 every year. reporter: that s almost 1,000 investigations involving a gun used in a crime every day. the goal here is to help local, state, and international police track the life of a gun. and how it ends up in the hands of a criminal. for example, last year the atf helped ohio police trace more than 10,000 guns. it helped california investigators track more than
actually, the electronic readers that we re using, we have not configured them for e-mail, but, in any case, even if those applications were to be put on by someone other than us, there are lots of ways people can use smartphones and laptops to communicate, and they are all subject to the open government laws in the same way. so it is a legitimate concern but one we think is workable. and, megan, let s talk about your concerns here, and jack hit the nose on one word i wanted to bring up and that is laws. you have electronic records versus paper records, and because of the technology changing so quickly, you to have the issue of laws that differ from state to state and statutes and things like this. and so how could this impact public access? well, not all state the, as
matter? because the feds raided michael cohen s home and his residences and the hotel room he was staying in. his office in this very building. they got a lot of documents. there was a lot of back and forth what s admissible and what s attorney/client privilege and what s not. but the fact is they are in possession of and have seen a lot of documents. does it matter? what do they need out of michael cohen any way? what michael cohen says without evidence doe that much although it s certainly helpful to any federal case. what he says that sy evidence, well, they have the paper records. this whole thing started as we recall with the president of the united states lawyer s office being raided. that is notnormal. that is a huge deal. then cohen said we are doing to this out. most of it is the privileged. they have been losing that. that is the backdrop. if there is bad stuff, the feds have it. if there is stuff that isn t bad