RELEASE: Congressman Michael Cloud Demands Response from ATF on Illegal National Gun Registry

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Michael Cloud (TX-27), along with several other members of Congress, sent a follow-up letter to Deputy Director Robert Cekada of the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), demanding an immediate response to inquiries about the agency’s Out-of-Business Records Imaging System (OBRIS)—a digital database that functions as an illegal, searchable national gun registry in violation of federal law.

The original inquiry, submitted by 18 Members of Congress on February 14, 2025, has gone unanswered for over 290 days. The follow-up letter urges the ATF to provide a full response no later than February 10, 2026, including the total number of records (digital and hard copy) currently maintained in OBRIS.

“Congress has waited long enough for basic transparency from the ATF,” Rep. Cloud stated. “The American people have a right to know if their government is maintaining an unlawful registry of firearms and firearm owners in direct violation of U.S. code and the Second Amendment.”

Key concerns outlined in the letter include:

• A 2021 leaked document showed the agency was processing more than 54 million out-of-business gun records per year, and a later congressional review found nearly 921 million records already in ATF hands—most of them digitized.
• At that rate, the total could easily reach 1.1 billion records today, which would directly violate the federal ban on gun-owner or gun-sale registries (18 U.S.C. § 926(a)(3)).

The letter stresses that ATF’s refusal to respond hinders congressional oversight, funding decisions, and compliance with appropriations restrictions, federal statutes, and constitutional protections under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

Click here to read the letter.

Members of Congress signing the letter include:

Reps. Begich, Biggs (AZ), Biggs (SC), Boebert, Burlison, Cline, Clyde, Desjarlais, Fallon, Gooden, Hunt, Johnson (SD), Luna, Mann, McCormick, McGuire, Miller (IL), Moore (AL), Ogles, Smith (NE), Rose, Roy, Stauber, Taylor, Van Drew, and Van Epps.

Groups in support of the letter include:

Gun Owners of America