ATF's Illegal Gun Registry 101

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ATF’s Firearm Record Database is a Registry that Violates Multiple Federal Statutes

1. Despite being prohibited by law from maintaining a registry of guns, gun owners, and firearm transactions, ATF maintains nearly a billion such records and the Biden Administration is encouraging dealers to supply even more.
2. Despite being prohibited from centralizing or consolidating records, ATF admits to consolidating records required to be kept by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) into a “centrally managed” database.
3. Despite being prohibited from electronically retrieving information from these records by name or other personal identifiers, ATF asks FFLs to turn in searchable records or convert paper records it receives into a searchable format. ATF is capable of searching through these records in nearly every way except by name, and this is only because the feature has been voluntarily switched off—not because ATF lacks the technological capability.

Current Source of Registry Records, Alleged Purpose, and ATF’s Illegal Registry Expansion

At present, ATF’s near-billion record registry is only a partial national gun registry. By regulation it only necessarily contains records that were up to 20 years old, and only originate from when a Federal Firearms Licensee discontinued its business license. What was the purpose of this regulation? To conduct record searches in the investigation of a violent crime.  However, ATF has been unable to even prove the efficacy of maintaining these records insofar as helping solve or prosecute any violent crimes.

Alarmingly, ATF has also “strongly recommended,” urged, and permitted non-out-of-business-FFLs to turn over current records even before they go out of business, in violation of appropriations restrictions. ATF deceived Rep. Michael Cloud and 52 Members of Congress about the ongoing violation and is engaged in a coverup to quietly comply with the statute. 

Biden to Expand the Partial Billion-Record Gun Registry into a Complete Gun Registry

On top of the current abuses, the Biden Administration turned this partial registry into a complete and total national gun registry of every firearm sold since August 26th, 2002. This rule must be reversed by Congress by passing the No Retaining Every Gun in a Registry That Restricts Your Rights Act or No REGISTRY Rights Act. 

It is the Duty of Congress to Destroy this Illegal, Centralized, Searchable Gun Registry

Despite clear law prohibiting this activity, ATF has been compiling digital records of FFL transactions for years, and today they have nearly a billion records in searchable format. This illegal registry, which infringes on the Second Amendment must be destroyed and the destruction of these records promptly certified to Congress. For good measure, the statute abused by ATF to justify compiling these records should be struck from the U.S. Code.

Without action by Congress, this illegal ATF registry can be used for mass gun confiscation, by this government—such as for the enforcement of the Biden Pistol Ban—or potentially one day even by this nation’s enemies.

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