East Idaho Times

U.S. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho and Representative Michael Cloud of Texas have introduced the No Retaining Every Gun In a System that Restricts Your (REGISTRY) Rights Act. This legislation aims to prevent the establishment of a federal firearms registry by the U.S. government.

"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," said Risch. "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."

Cloud echoed similar sentiments, stating, "Americans’ right to keep and bear arms is not subject to a government inventory. 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." He further added, "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."

Joining Risch and Cloud in introducing this bill are Senators Mike Crapo from Idaho, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Steve Daines from Montana, Roger Marshall from Kansas, Pete Ricketts from Nebraska, Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, Tim Sheehy from Montana, Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi, along with 47 members of the House of Representatives.

The proposed act would require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to delete all existing firearm transaction records. It would also allow federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to destroy transaction records when they go out of business and prevent the ATF from creating or maintaining any future firearms registry.

Currently, under existing laws, FFLs must transfer firearm transaction records to the ATF upon closing their businesses. These records are stored in the ATF's Out-of-Business Records Imaging System, which holds nearly one billion records and could potentially serve as groundwork for a federal firearms registry.

In April 2022, the Biden administration published a rule requiring FFLs to preserve all firearm transaction records indefinitely. Since 1984, regulations allowed FFLs to discard records older than 20 years since the "time-to-crime" period rarely exceeds two decades.

The No REGISTRY Rights Act has received support from Gun Owners of America.