Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) are introducing legislation Thursday to block the formation of any federal gun registry.
The legislation, titled “No REGISTRY Rights Act.” It is designed to protect Second Amendment rights while also addressing the overreach of the ATF, as witnessed under the Biden Administration.
On February 1, 2022, Breitbart News pointed to a report showing the ATF had a database in which the agency had accumulated details on well over 9o0 million firearm purchases by Americans. According to the Washington Free Beacon report, “The ATF disclosed to lawmakers that it manages a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records, including both digital and hard copy versions of these transactions.”
At that time, Rep. Cloud investigated the ATF’s record collection and warned that the Biden administration could use the accumulated information to launch a gun registry:
A federal firearm registry is explicitly banned by law. Yet, the Biden administration is again circumventing Congress and enabling the notably corrupt ATF to manage a database of nearly a billion gun transfer records…Under the president’s watch, the ATF has increased surveillance on American gun owners at an abhorrent level. The Biden administration continues to empower criminals and foreign nationals while threatening the rights of law-abiding Americans. It’s shameful and this administration should reconsider its continued attacks on American gun owners.
Cloud and Risch are now putting forward the “No REGISTRY Rights Act” to head off this monstrosity, noting that during Biden’s second year as President, his administration “finalized a rule requiring [Federal Firearm License holders] to retain records permanently, overturning decades of policy that allowed these records to be destroyed after 20 years.” This new rule, combined with the ATF’s “zero tolerance” policy–a policy which has forced the closure of many gun-related stores due to simple clerical errors–results in more records coming to ATF, records which could be used to grow the agency’s database.
Cloud’s office noted that when an FFL’s records come to the ATF they “are stored indefinitely in the [the agency’s] Out-of-Business Records Imaging System (OBRIS) database, laying the groundwork for a federal gun registry.”
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The “No REGISTRY Rights Act” addresses this perilous situation by forcing the deletion of records currently possessed by the ATF and preventing the collection of future records.
The Act does this by: 1) “Requiring the ATF to delete all existing firearm transaction records, dismantling the current database,” 2) “Allowing FFLs to destroy transaction records when they go out of business, preventing further accumulation by the ATF,” 3) “Prohibiting any federal agency from creating or maintaining a firearms registry in the future.”
Rep. Cloud commented, saying, “The Second Amendment is a cornerstone of individual liberty, and no administration—Republican or Democrat—should have the ability to compile a list of law-abiding gun owners. The Biden Administration’s backdoor attempts to create a federal firearms registry are a clear threat to Americans’ privacy and constitutional freedoms. The No REGISTRY Rights Act will dismantle the ATF’s existing database and ensure such a registry can never be implemented.”
Sen. Risch said, “The ATF’s excessive overreach has gone unchecked for too long. Idaho’s law-abiding gun owners should not be subject to an already illegal federal firearms registry. The Second Amendment is not conditional to a list of guns in circulation and their owners. All law-abiding Americans have the undeniable right to keep and bear arms. My No Registry Rights Act will safeguard this essential liberty for generations to come.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
