Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act

Key Points

• This bill would repeal the requirement that instant criminal background check records be destroyed within 24 hours. Keeping these records longer would help law enforcement trace firearms used in crimes and identify straw purchasers who buy guns on behalf of prohibited individuals.
• The bill would allow ATF to require gun shop owners to perform annual physical inventory checks of their firearms stock. This is currently blocked by the Tiahrt Amendments, meaning there is no federal mechanism to ensure dealers can account for all weapons in their possession.
• Gun trace data — information about where a crime gun was originally sold — would become available to the public and researchers through Freedom of Information Act requests. Currently, a 2003 appropriations rider blocks FOIA requests about firearm traces and arson/explosives incidents.
• The Department of Justice would be allowed to centralize firearms acquisition and disposition records maintained by licensed dealers. Supporters say this would help identify interstate gun trafficking patterns, though opponents worry it could create a de facto national gun registry.
• The bill cites research showing that the Tiahrt Amendments dramatically increase gun trafficking to the criminal market and limit researchers' ability to study how illegal guns flow across state lines and how prohibited purchasers obtain firearms.