On Jan. 16, 2025, Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) put forward legislation to stop the formation of any federal gun registry. The legislation in question, the “No Retaining Every Gun In a System That Restricts Your Rights Act,” is designed to reverse abuses from the preceding Biden administration’s ATF policies.
According to a 2022 report by the Washington Free Beacon, the ATF gathered information of close to 1 billion firearms purchases made by lawful Americans. When this controversy surfaced, Cloud launched an investigation on the ATF’s record collection and warned that then-President Joe Biden could use this massive compilation of data to set up a firearms registration system.
Such a move would be in violation of federal law, the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986, which explicitly prohibits the creation of a federal gun registration system. However, Biden’s ATF was hellbent on bypassing the US Congress and granting the ATF the power to run a database of over 920 million firearms records and even spy on firearms owners.
Biden’s presidency was infamously marked by the ATF’s “zero tolerance” policy, wherein it forced countless firearms to close owing to gun dealers making simple paperwork errors. The upshot was that the ATF would receive these records and could continue to grow its database.
Cloud has observed that when a Federal Firearms Licensee’s (FFL) records arrive at the ATF they “are stored indefinitely in the [the agency’s] Out-of-Business Records Imaging System (OBRIS) database, laying the groundwork for a federal gun registry.” This alarming power grab prompted Cloud and Risch to introduce the “No REGISTRY Rights Act.”
The act would compel the ATF to erase its current records and stop the future collection of records. The Act tackles these issues head-on by:
- Requiring the ATF to delete all existing firearm transaction records, dismantling the current database.
- Allowing FFLs to destroy transaction records when they go out of business, preventing further accumulation by the ATF,
- Prohibiting any federal agency from creating or maintaining a firearms registry in the future.
Rep. Cloud stated, “The Second Amendment is a cornerstone of individual liberty, and no administration — Republican or Democrat — should have the ability to compile a list of law-abiding gun owners. The Biden Administration’s backdoor attempts to create a federal firearms registry are a clear threat to Americans’ privacy and constitutional freedoms. The No REGISTRY Rights Act will dismantle the ATF’s existing database and ensure such a registry can never be implemented.”
Sen. Risch stated, “The ATF’s excessive overreach has gone unchecked for too long. Idaho’s law-abiding gun owners should not be subject to an already illegal federal firearms registry. The Second Amendment is not conditional to a list of guns in circulation and their owners. All law-abiding Americans have the undeniable right to keep and bear arms. My No Registry Rights Act will safeguard this essential liberty for generations to come.”
As long as the federal government is allowed to regulate gun ownership in the United States, the possibility of gun controllers establishing a federal gun registration system remains high.
Pro-Second Amendment organizations have long argued that a system of gun registration would pave the way for future anti-gun administrations to pursue outright gun confiscation.
Thus far, well over four dozen legislators have co-sponsored this bill.
BREAKING@SenatorRisch, @RepCloudTX, & 49 cosponsors have introduced the GOA-backed No Retaining Every Gun In A System That Restricts Your Rights Act or No REGISTRY Rights Act.
The bill would delete ATF’s illegal 920,664,765-record gun registry. pic.twitter.com/Es04D6I5BX
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) January 16, 2025
Passing this bill would be a good first step in undermining the unconstitutional NICS system and other attempts to undermine the Second Amendment through bureaucratic actions. With a Republican trifecta in DC, gun owners can shake things up by passing this legislation.
However, nothing is set in stone in politics. Moreover, Republicans have a long history of dragging their feet on these key issues. A strong dose of external pressure will be needed to make Cloud’s bill a legislative reality.
About José Niño
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. You can contact him via Facebook and X/Twitter. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.
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