Third hand report is disturbing, BATF taking gun inventories?

I was speaking with a coworker this morning and was told a story that, if true, is disturbing. My coworker had been invited to a corporate pigeon shoot and was talking to the rangemaster of the club where it was held. One of this man's jobs is to buy shotguns to be used as loaners for invited corporate participants in such shoots and sporting clays tournaments. He buys a number of shotguns a year for these activities. He is not an FFL, he is a regular citizen who fills out the same NICS background check form that the rest of us do. He says he had a visit from two BATF agents who claimed to have a stack of ATF form 4473's (which he was not allowed to see.) and they wanted permission to look at and record serial numbers from all of his guns. He declined their request. They were reportedly cordial about it and left without the information they sought, but I have a suspicion this will not end here. They will be back with a court order I'm sure. This is supposedly part of Obama's crackdown on Mexican gun smugglers and agents from all over the country have been brought to Texas to take part in these "visits".

What gets me is, I thought this information was supposed to be destroyed after the check was completed on the government's end of the inquiry. I know the dealer is required to keep the 4473 forms for something like 20 years. I suppose they may have obtained copies of the forms from the dealer involved, but the simple fact that the BATF is now going around and verifying your ownership of a gun is disturbing. Can confiscation be far off?