Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08929

I join Gun Owners of America in strongly opposing ATF’s proposed rule, Firearm Records Retention Periods (RIN 1140–AA95), to the extent that it would continue requiring decades-long retention of firearm transaction records, and allow ATF to maintain out-of-business (“OOB”) dealer records for additional decades. While the proposal appears intended to partially roll back the Biden Administration’s “forever retention” policy adopted in 2022, merely returning to a 20- or 30-year standard is insufficient to protect gun owners’ privacy and constitutional rights. The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 (“FOPA”) prohibits post-1986 regulations that expand the transfer to or maintenance of firearm transaction records in government-controlled facilities. Any retention period exceeding the framework of 20 years that pre-existed FOPA would violate both the text and spirit of 18 U.S.C. § 926(a). Moreover, the Second Amendment does not tolerate the creation or preservation of a de facto federal registry of law-abiding gun owners much less one that exists for decades on end. ATF’s own historical findings demonstrate that the law-enforcement utility of decades-old records is minimal. In its 1985 rulemaking, ATF acknowledged that trace usefulness sharply declines over time, especially after 10–15 years. Yet under the current framework, records may effectively be retained for generations—first by dealers, and then by ATF after a dealer goes out of business. Such a system transforms temporary business records into functionally permanent federal surveillance files of Americans’ firearm ownership. ATF’s “new era of reform” should not merely be about returning to the pre-Biden status quo. Indeed, if ATF were to select 30 years as the retention, then this rulemaking would not even accomplish that. This would represent an utter failure in the eyes of gun owners by this Administration. ATF needs to make affirmative progress in the right direction—protecting gun owners by reducing record retention periods as much as possible. Accordingly, I agree with GOA that ATF should adopt the shortest possible retention period permitted by law, ideally zero years. At a minimum, any retention period imposed on FFLs must also apply to ATF’s OOB records, with mandatory destruction upon expiration of that same period. ATF should use this rulemaking to dismantle—not preserve—the infrastructure of a national gun owner registry.