Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) joined U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) and U.S. Representative Michael Cloud (R-TX) in introducing the No Retaining Every Gun In a System that Restricts Your (REGISTRY) Rights Act. This legislation would prevent the U.S. government from creating a federal firearms registry.

“The Constitution is crystal clear,” said Sen. Mullin. “The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. End of story. As your Senator, I will always fight to protect the privacy of lawful gun owners and defend your Second Amendment rights.”

Sens. Mullin, Risch, and Rep. Cloud are joined on this legislation by U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Steve Daines (R-MT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), and 47 members of the House of Representatives.

The No REGISTRY Rights Act would:

• Require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to delete all existing firearm transaction records.
• Allow federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to destroy transaction records when they go out of business; and
• Prevent the ATF from creating or maintaining a firearms registry in the future.

Under current law, FFLs are required to transfer firearm transaction records to the ATF when the businesses close. These records are stored in the ATF’s Out-of-Business Records Imaging System, which now holds nearly one billion records. This database lays the groundwork for a federal firearms registry.

In April 2022, the Biden administration published a final rule demanding that FFLs preserve all firearm transaction records indefinitely. Since 1984, federal regulations have allowed FFLS to discard records older than 20 years, as the “time-to-crime”—the period between a firearm’s last known legal sale and its use in a crime—rarely exceeds two decades.

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