Re: " What protections would you propose so that such information in the public domain isn't misused?"

This site limits the word count so I can't elaborate in detail. However the NICS database is really a go/no go process and no useful information has to be displayed to facilitate phishing expeditions for identity theft other than what was already known by the user making the query. It’s certainly no more revealing than the national $ex offender registry or the FAA’s pilot and mechanic license query system where the latter provides more detailed information on presumably law-abiding citizens. Basically a person enters the personal information of the transferee and the system responds with a proceed, hold or deny response.