Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act

Key Points

• This bill would repeal the Tiahrt Amendments, a set of rules embedded in spending bills since 2003 that restrict how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) collects, stores, and shares firearms data. Supporters say these restrictions have blocked effective law enforcement.
• Currently, the government must destroy approved background check records within 24 hours. This bill would end that requirement, letting the government keep those records longer to help investigate how illegal guns move through communities.
• The bill would lift the ban on processing Freedom of Information Act requests about firearm traces and arson incidents, opening up data that has been hidden from the public and researchers for over two decades.
• Gun shop owners could be required to perform annual physical inventory checks of their firearms. The bill also removes the ban on the Department of Justice creating a centralized system for gun acquisition and disposition records kept by licensed firearms dealers.
• The bill cites research showing the Tiahrt Amendments increased gun trafficking and limited researchers' ability to study how guns flow from less restrictive states to more restrictive states and how prohibited buyers obtain firearms.