RELEASE: Congressman Cloud Demands Accountability from ATF on Firearm Registry

WASHINGTON, D.C. – By law, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) is prohibited from maintaining a searchable federal registry of gun owners. When a gun dealer goes out of business, their “out of business records” (OBR) are sent to the ATF, resulting in the ATF having possession of millions of traceable records, involving firearm make, model, and serial number.

In November of 2021, Congressman Cloud (TX-27) led a letter with 51 members of Congress to the ATF, asking how many OBRs their agency kept. The ATF responded a month later, stating they had about a billion records in their possession. In addition, the agency stated their National Tracing Center (NTC) is unable to keep track of an annual trace list that prosecutes violent criminals.

In February of 2022, a follow-up letter with 36 members was sent asking in detail about ATF’s firearm records and traces. After two additional follow-ups, ATF finally responded to Congressman Cloud in July 2026, confirming their database has grown to more than 1.4 billion records.

The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 prohibits “any system of registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearms transactions.” Despite these restrictions, Gun Owners of America (GOA) found that the database is searchable and can be filtered by make, model, and firearm type, making ATF’s database an illegal backdoor to a gun registry.

Key provisions of the letter include:

• An independent investigation of ATF’s Martinsburg, West Virginia database
• The destruction of any records maintained in violation of the 1986 Act and appropriations prohibitions.
• A requirement that any future ATF rule on record retention complies with those same prohibitions.

“ATF has confirmed what we suspected: this unlawful database exists. This database functions as a national registry of gun owners – a violation of federal law and American citizens’ Second Amendment rights. This registry should be destroyed. The second it’s in the wrong hands, it’s a threat to every gun owner’s privacy and freedom.” – Rep. Michael Cloud (TX-27)