Gun Records Restoration Act Ends 24-Hour Destruction Rule, Allows ATF to Track Crime Guns

The Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act is essentially a clean-up bill aimed at boosting law enforcement’s ability to track illegal firearms by reversing decades of legislative restrictions. The core of this legislation is the repeal of several provisions—often referred to collectively as the Tiahrt Amendments—that have, for years, tied the hands of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and limited public research into gun trafficking.

The End of the 24-Hour Rule

For anyone who has purchased a firearm, the instant background check (NICS) process is familiar. Currently, federal law (specifically Section 7) requires that the records associated with these checks be destroyed within 24 hours. This bill scraps that requirement. What does that mean for the average person? It means that background check data will no longer be automatically deleted after a day. For law enforcement, this is a huge deal, as the bill’s findings note that the inability to retain these records makes it significantly harder to trace guns used in crimes back to their first retail sale.

For legal gun owners, this change removes a restriction that has long served as a privacy safeguard, even if it was a headache for investigators. The records won't be destroyed, allowing the ATF to retain and potentially use this transaction data for longer periods, which naturally raises questions about data privacy and how long personal information is kept on file.

Inventory Checks and Centralized Records

Sections 5 and 6 tackle the administrative side of the gun industry. Currently, the ATF is banned from requiring Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs)—the gun dealers—to conduct a physical check of their inventory. This bill removes that ban. If you run a gun shop, prepare for the possibility of mandatory physical audits, which could be an administrative burden but is intended to help catch “lost” or stolen inventory that might be diverted to the black market.

Even bigger is the change in Section 6, which eliminates the prohibition on the Department of Justice centralizing or consolidating the acquisition and disposition (A&D) records maintained by FFLs. Think of A&D records as the dealer’s ledger of every gun that comes in and every gun that goes out. Previously, the ATF couldn't create a centralized database of these records. Now, they can. This move is designed to streamline tracing efforts, but it also means a vast, centralized database of virtually all retail gun sales can now be created by the government. This is one of those provisions that helps law enforcement immensely but generates significant concern among those worried about government overreach and the creation of a national gun registry.

Opening the Books on Tracing Data

Finally, the bill addresses transparency and research. Section 4 repeals an old rule that prevented the government from even processing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to firearm traces, arson, or explosives incidents. Previously, if a researcher or journalist wanted data on how guns move across state lines or how often certain types of guns are used in crimes, they were blocked before they even started.

By repealing this prohibition, the bill opens the door for researchers (like the RAND Corporation, whose analysis is cited in the findings) to access crucial data. This means that future policy debates about gun violence will likely be based on better, more current data, allowing the public and policymakers to understand the actual flow of illegal weapons, rather than relying on educated guesses.