{"id":159261,"date":"2022-02-07T10:41:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T15:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=159261"},"modified":"2022-02-07T10:41:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T02:56:28","slug":"atf-1-billion-gun-records-gop-lawmakers-registry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/atf-1-billion-gun-records-gop-lawmakers-registry\/","title":{"rendered":"ATF Admits It Has Nearly 1 Billion Gun Records, GOP Lawmakers Ask, ‘How Is This Not a Registry?’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"ATF
Is the ATF planning a gun registry?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is in hot water (again<\/a>) after one of its officials admitted that the agency currently holds nearly one billion records of gun purchases and that 94% of those records have been digitized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn total, ATF manages 920,664,765 OBR as of November 2021. This includes digital and an estimated number of hard copy records that are awaiting image conversion. It is currently estimated that 865,787,086 of those records are in digitalized format,\u201d Assistant Director of Public and Government Affairs Daniel L. Board, Jr. said in a letter to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy began after 52 members of Congress sent a letter<\/a> to the ATF demanding that the agency justify a new rule that would prohibit FFLs from destroying gun purchase records after 20 years. Current law allows gun dealers to destroy records older than 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the ATF requires FFLs that go out of business to transfer all records to their facility in West Virginia, prohibiting those dealers from destroying records would, eventually, give the ATF a registry of all gun purchases made throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are concerned that this Administration is leveraging its power in a way to establish a federal gun registry,\u201d the congresspeople said in a letter<\/a> back in November 2021. Such a registry would be illegal under federal law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEE ALSO: ATF Raids Home of Amish Man in Pennsylvania Who Admits to Selling Firearms<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Board claimed in his response that the ATF\u2019s \u201cOut of Business Records Imaging System\u201d does not \u201ccapture and store certain key information, such as firearms purchaser information, in an automated file.\u201d But Board also tries to justify the system by pointing out that the records are used by law enforcement to trace \u201ccrime guns.\u201d It\u2019s unclear how those traces are useful if purchaser information is not captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congresspeople who sent the original letter weren\u2019t satisfied with the ATF\u2019s response, so they issued another letter<\/a> this week seeking additional clarification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They point out that the ATF has thus far not provided any reasonable justification for its new prohibition on destroying firearm records older than 20 years. The average time between a gun purchase and its presence on a crime scene is just over seven years, and the ATF cannot say whether adding records over 20 years old would have any measurable impact on solving crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEE ALSO: BREAKING: ATF to Start Confiscating These Today!<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the proposed rule<\/a> (which also happens to be the new \u201cframe or receiver\u201d definition), the ATF claims that records over 20 years should be stored because the \u201cdurability and longevity\u201d of firearms keeps them in \u201ccirculation\u201d for over 20 years. They also claim that \u201csome traces of firearms involved in crimes\u201d have not been completed because the records have been destroyed, but they do not offer any additional detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congresspeople ask the ATF to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n