Blair Holt Firearm Owner Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill would make it a federal crime to possess a handgun or a semiautomatic rifle that accepts a magazine holding more than 10 rounds without a firearm owner license. To qualify you must be at least 21 (with exceptions for supervised minors with parental consent), pass a fingerprint background check, and certify you have not recently been in a mental health facility.
• Nearly all private sales and gifts of covered firearms would have to go through a licensed dealer, who verifies the buyer's license, and the dealer must report each sale to the Attorney General within 14 days. A new Federal record of sale system would be created within 270 days.
• Owners must report a lost or stolen firearm within 72 hours of discovering it. The bill also creates a child access prevention crime for leaving a gun where a child can get it if that leads to death or serious injury, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
• The license fee is capped at $10 and licenses last 5 years before renewal. Existing owners get 2 years to get licensed after enactment, while new buyers get 1 year.
• The rules exempt police, on-duty military and National Guard, and certain veterans doing ceremonial duties. States can run their own licensing and sale record systems if the Attorney General certifies them as at least as strict as the federal system.
• The bill removes a longstanding legal barrier by striking language in section 926(a) that blocked a federal registration system, though it states elsewhere it does not authorize a national firearms registry. This tension is likely to be a major point of legal and political dispute.