This Act prohibits firearm sales to individuals subject to a court order restricting gun possession while awaiting trial and provides federal grants to states for reporting such orders to the NICS background check system.
Cory Booker
Senator
NJ
The Preventing Pretrial Gun Purchases Act amends federal law to prohibit individuals subject to a court order restricting firearm possession while awaiting trial from purchasing or possessing guns. This legislation establishes a federal definition for "pretrial release order" and requires licensed dealers to check for these new prohibitions during sales. Furthermore, the bill creates a grant program to incentivize states and tribes to report these restrictive court orders to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Pretrial Gun Ban Bill Adds New Federal Restriction, Authorizes $25 Million for State Reporting
The “Preventing Pretrial Gun Purchases Act” is designed to close what some see as a loophole in federal gun background checks. If you’re out on bail or awaiting trial, and a judge has specifically ordered you not to possess a firearm, this bill makes that local restriction a federal law. This means if you’re under a court-issued “pretrial release order” that forbids gun possession, you are now federally prohibited from buying or receiving a firearm, effective immediately upon the bill’s passage.
The New Federal Stop Sign
Right now, federal law prohibits gun sales to several categories of people—felons, those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors, and those subject to certain protective orders. This bill adds a new category under Section 922(d) of the Gun Control Act: anyone subject to a “pretrial release order” that specifically bans them from having a gun. This change is significant because it federalizes what has traditionally been a local court condition. For a licensed firearm dealer (FFL), this means the background check system (NICS) must now screen for this new type of court restriction before a sale can proceed. The bill updates the rules for FFLs to ensure their record-keeping and transfer procedures align with this new prohibition.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Local Courts and NICS
This is where the policy meets the pavement, and it gets complicated. The new federal prohibition relies entirely on state, tribal, or local courts issuing these specific orders and then reporting them to the federal NICS system. To encourage this reporting, the bill authorizes a new grant program, setting aside $25 million annually from 2026 through 2030. This money is specifically for states and tribes to improve their systems so they can upload details about these covered pretrial release orders to NICS.
If you live in a state that doesn’t currently report these court orders diligently, the federal prohibition might not be enforced immediately during a background check. However, the federal government is now offering a hefty financial incentive to make sure they do. This puts pressure on state and local court administrators to update their IT systems and processes, which is often a heavy lift, even with grant money.
The Consistency Question
While the goal is clear—preventing those deemed a temporary risk from getting guns—the implementation relies on consistency across thousands of local courts. A “pretrial release order” from a state court in California might look very different from one issued by a tribal court in Oklahoma. Since the federal prohibition is triggered by the language of the local order, any lack of uniformity in how judges write or issue these conditions could lead to uneven application of the federal ban. For the individual out on bond, this means the specific wording of their local judge’s order now has direct, immediate federal consequences. The bill is clear that the Attorney General will have significant discretion in determining what information states must provide to qualify for the grant money, which could be used to push for greater standardization in reporting.