Although federal law prohibits the creation of a national gun registry, Republican lawmakers and Second Amendment organizations fear that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) may be trying to put one together.
Alarms were first sounded three years ago, when the ATF began soliciting bids to digitize records of firearm sales.
In August of 2022, the ATF announced that it had approved a new rule permitting the bureau to store their Form 4473s on an alternate method of digital storage.
A Form 4473, a Firearms Transaction Record, is prepared each time a firearm is sold by a licensed gun dealer, known as a Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL).
A Form 4473 includes the name and address of the dealer, the name and personal information of the buyer, and the make, model, and serial number of the firearm.
Until recently, all completed 4473s, more than a billion of them, have been stored in their initial paper form.
At that time Gun Owners of America (GOA), a gun rights advocacy group, took aim at the ATF, stating that the bureau “is maintaining a digital, searchable, centralized registry of guns and gun owners in violation of various federal prohibitions.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that the “Biden administration has managed to politicize and weaponize almost all of our federal agencies against conservatives – and it’s time we take a stand.
“We cannot allow Joe Biden and the radical leftists in his administration to establish a permanent gun registry they can use to target Americans they see as their opponents for exercising their Second Amendment rights,” Cruz added.
Nothing much was heard about the ATF’s plan to digitize its 4473s until late September, when the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) got involved and published a press release.
“In 2022, Biden’s anti-gun cronies cut a $186 million check to Eagle Harbor to digitize Form 4473s,” said Dudley Brown, NAGR president.
“And now, deep-state bureaucrats are in a mad dash to finish building this federal backdoor gun registry before President Trump can slam the brakes on this lawlessness.”
NAGR announced in the same press release a nationwide campaign demanding:
- An immediate halt to the ATF’s digitization scheme
- The destruction of every record already scanned
- Strict enforcement of the federal ban on registries
“Let’s just call this what it is. . . a gun registry, plain and simple,” Brown continued. “Congress has flat-out banned the federal government from creating a registry of gun owners. Yet, the ATF is thumbing its nose at the law and daring gun owners to stop them.”
Three years ago Sen. Cruz introduced the No Retaining Every Gun In a System that Restricts Your (REGISTRY) Rights Act, which would prevent the U.S. government from creating a federal firearms registry.
It failed to get approval then, but it was reintroduced in January, this time by Sens. Roger Marshall, M.D., R-Kansas, Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas.
However, national firearms registries are already prohibited by law.
The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) includes a provision that prohibits the creation of a national registry of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions.
In addition, the Brady Act contains language that prohibits the use of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to create a registry of firearms, firearm owners, or transactions.
Each time a person purchases a gun from an FFL, the dealer runs the buyer’s information through the NICS to confirm that the buyer’s record is clean so that he can legally purchase a firearm.
There’s one more thing that prevents the ATF from compiling a national gun registry — not all guns are sold by FFLs, and not all buyers’ names are run through the NICS.
Private sales are both legal and remain outside of the system.
Democrats have made several attempts to force private sales to be run through an FFL.
The parties would pay the dealer a fee to have them prepare the Form 4473 and run the buyer’s name through the NICS. But each attempt has failed.
More than a decade ago, author and columnist Ann Coulter gave her opinion of universal background checks.
“Universal background checks means universal registration,” she said.
“Universal registration means universal confiscation, universal extermination. That’s how it goes in history. Do not fall for universal background checks.”
And as far as that goes, although gun registries are illegal in the United States, we should never place too much trust in government to follow the law.
As Ronald Reagan once observed, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'”
And that goes double if they’re from the ATF.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz’s Reports — More Here.
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