Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08929

I appreciate ATF's decision to reconsider the current policy of indefinite records retention. However, I believe the proposed retention periods remain substantially longer than necessary to accomplish the agency's statutory mission and oppose the proposed rule as written. The notice correctly recognizes that records should not be retained indefinitely. Once that principle is accepted, the agency should provide a stronger evidentiary basis for selecting a 20- or 30-year retention period. The proposed rule would benefit from additional quantitative analysis demonstrating the percentage of successful firearm traces that rely on records older than 20 years and the incremental investigative value provided by retaining records between 20 and 30 years. Without such information, it is difficult for the public to evaluate whether the additional administrative costs and privacy impacts associated with longer retention periods are justified by measurable improvements in investigative outcomes. Congress has repeatedly expressed concern regarding the accumulation of federal firearms transaction records through statutory provisions prohibiting the establishment of a national firearms registry. While the proposed rule does not itself establish such a registry, minimizing the duration of federal record retention is consistent with those statutory policies while still permitting ATF to perform its regulatory responsibilities. See Congressional Research Service, Statutory Federal Gun Registry Prohibitions and ATF Record Retention (IF12057, updated March 4, 2022, https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12057).. If you bought a gun today, the paperwork might not be destroyed until July 7th, 2086 under this ATF rule. A gun store could keep a record of your gun purchase for 29 years 364 days, go out-of-business, and then ATF would keep the gun record for another 30 years. It seems there would be very little law enforcement investigative value after some much shorter period of time. If ATF determines that some reduction in retention is appropriate, I encourage the agency to adopt the shortest retention period supported by empirical evidence. In addition, the final rule should establish transparent auditing procedures confirming that records are destroyed once they become eligible for disposal and should publicly report compliance with those requirements. For these reasons, I respectfully recommend that ATF withdraw this proposed rule change and resubmit one with shorter retention periods supported by data, and that include enforceable auditing and destruction of retained records.