Gun Owners of America is mobilizing its members against a provision in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ recent package of 34 rulemaking notices — specifically the rule governing how long FFLs must retain Form 4473 transaction records and how long ATF itself can hold those records after a dealer goes out of business.
The pro-gun rights organization is calling the proposed rule a “step in the right direction” but ultimately inadequate, arguing that the federal government’s long-term retention of firearms transaction records functions as a de facto national gun registry — something explicitly prohibited by federal law.
What ATF is actually proposing
The proposed rule, Firearms Records Retention Periods (RIN 1140-AA95), published in the Federal Register on May 6, 2026, would amend the regulations governing how long federal firearms licensees must keep their acquisition and disposition records and how long ATF’s National Tracing Center can hold records received from out-of-business dealers.
Specifically, ATF is proposing to replace the current indefinite retention requirement with a specific period — and is considering either 20 years or 30 years as the retention window. The proposed rule does not commit to one or the other; instead, ATF is soliciting public input on which retention period to adopt.
The public comment period closes August 4, 2026.
The Biden-era rule being reverted
The current indefinite retention requirement comes from Final Rule 2021R-05F, signed by the Attorney General on April 11, 2022, and effective August 24, 2022. That rule extended FFL record retention from the previously established 20-year minimum to the entirety of the licensee’s business operations — meaning records would be kept permanently and submitted to ATF in their entirety when dealers went out of business.
Before the Biden-era rule, FFLs were required to maintain transaction records for a minimum of 20 years under regulations established by ATF in earlier rulemaking. That 20-year standard had been in place for decades.
ATF’s new proposed rule effectively reverts to the pre-Biden 20-year framework or extends it modestly to 30 years — but does not reduce retention below those historical norms.
GOA’s argument: status quo isn’t enough
In a national alert to members, GOA President Erich Pratt characterized the proposed rule as preserving the infrastructure of an illegal gun registry rather than dismantling it.
“This record retention amounts to an unconstitutional, illegal registry of guns and gun owners,” Pratt wrote. “The registry, compiled by ATF using Form 4473 — which is the dealer sales form completed by gun owners during firearms transactions — must be destroyed.”
Pratt’s critique acknowledges ATF’s reform direction while pushing for more aggressive change. “While the rule is a step in the right direction, it reverts to an Obama-era status quo — that records should be kept by gun dealers for 20 to 30 years after the firearms transaction,” Pratt wrote. “And of course, ATF is suggesting that they should be able to keep those records in their illegal registry for another 30 years after they receive them. That’s 60 years of your information being held by the federal government.”
The organization’s substantive argument hinges on ATF’s own historical findings about the law-enforcement utility of older records. In ATF’s 1985 rulemaking, the agency acknowledged that the usefulness of firearms traces declines sharply over time, particularly after 10-15 years. More recently, ATF admitted to Texas Rep. Michael Cloud that the agency “has no ability to determine” how many crime gun traces actually lead to successful prosecutions.
If ATF’s own data shows old records have minimal investigative value, GOA argues, the case for retaining them for decades collapses.
The legal framework
The “national gun registry” framing is not just rhetoric. Federal law, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 926(a), explicitly prohibits ATF from establishing a centralized system of records or registry of firearms or firearm owners. The statute reads: “No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof.”
Whether ATF’s current records system functions as a de facto registry has been disputed for years. A 2016 Government Accountability Office audit found ATF largely in compliance with the statutory registry prohibition. But Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) revealed in 2021 that ATF held approximately 920 million firearms records in a digital, searchable database — a figure that has likely grown past one billion records since then.
The legal argument GOA is making is that even if individual record retention by FFLs doesn’t constitute a registry, the aggregation of out-of-business records held by ATF for 30 additional years effectively creates one. The Biden-era indefinite retention rule sharpened this concern; the new ATF proposal modestly reduces it but doesn’t eliminate it.
How to comment
GOA is providing members with prewritten comment language for submission to ATF through the federal e-rulemaking portal. The prewritten comment reads in part:
“I join Gun Owners of America in strongly opposing ATF’s proposed rule, Firearm Records Retention Periods (RIN 1140-AA95), to the extent that it would continue requiring decades-long retention of firearm transaction records, and allow ATF to maintain out-of-business (‘OOB’) dealer records for additional decades. ATF’s ‘new era of reform’ should not merely be about returning to the pre-Biden status quo… ATF needs to make affirmative progress in the right direction — protecting gun owners by reducing record retention periods as much as possible.”
Comments must be submitted by August 4, 2026. ATF will review all submitted comments before issuing a final rule, though the agency is not obligated to adopt commenter preferences.
Where this fits in the broader reform package
The records retention rule is one of 34 proposed and final rules in ATF’s “New Era of Reform” package, announced by the agency on the day Director Robert Cekada was confirmed by the Senate. The package also includes the proposed Form 4473 simplification, the stabilizing brace rule repeal, revisions to the “engaged in the business” rule, and the “non-over-the-counter” provision allowing direct shipping of firearms after background check completion.
For gun-rights organizations, the records retention rule represents one of the harder tests of the reform package’s depth. Reducing FFL paperwork burdens and clarifying definitions are politically easier wins than addressing the underlying records infrastructure. Whether ATF chooses 20 or 30 years — and whether public comments push the agency to consider even shorter retention periods — will signal how aggressively the current leadership intends to reform the most contested elements of federal firearms recordkeeping.
Opposition
Gun control advocacy groups including Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Brady have historically supported longer record retention as a law enforcement tool, arguing that crime gun traces frequently involve firearms recovered many years after their initial sale. Giffords specifically recommended in 2020 that ATF extend multiple-sales record retention from two years to ten years, citing the average time between firearm sale and recovery in a crime. Those groups are expected to file comments opposing any reduction in retention periods.
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