Comment on FR Doc # 2026-09158
Anonymous AnonymousOtherIndividual
Summary: The commenter, who identifies as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) and a law enforcement officer, expresses a desire for a balanced approach to firearms recordkeeping that respects privacy and existing laws. They propose specific retention periods (e.g., 5 years for 4473s) and require a warrant or probable cause for record access, rather than supporting the proposed action in its entirety.
As a FFL and law enforcement officer I recognize the need for tracing. However, this needs to be balanced between personal freedoms, privacy and law enforcement tracing interests.
Further the ATF needs to be concerned about the congressional law forbidding a government registry.
As a result, the vast majority of traces resulting from firearms trafficking are less than 5 years, if not less than a single year.
A compromise of 5 years is more than sufficient to protect public safety.
My proposal is a record keeping requirement of 5 years for 4473s and one year for multiple handgun sales.
AD&D books could have a indefinite record retention as long as the FFL is in business with a requirement that records over 5 years from transfer date can be purged prior to an FFL going out of business.
Lastly, any access to the retained records needs to have written justification of probable cause or a warrant for access and cannot be accessed. This is similar to most departments policies regarding Flock cameras. This needs to be a check and balance to protect law enforcement need while following Congress's law regarding no firearms registry.