Gun Owners of America is challenging the Trump administration’s defense of NICS Monitoring, arguing that ATF Director Robert Cekada’s description of the program leaves out its most dangerous feature: The FBI built a system capable of notifying federal agencies when legally eligible Americans attempt to buy firearms.
Cekada disclosed that only 61 ATF NICS alerts remained active as of September 17. That number sounds small when compared with the millions of firearm background checks conducted each year. It also counts only ATF alerts—not the full reach of the FBI system.
In a detailed response posted on X, GOA accused Cekada of making two false statements and three misleading statements about the program. The organization says federal records uncovered thousands of past NICS Monitoring alerts established by agencies including the U.S. Marshals Service, Secret Service, and Army.
Unfortunately, there are 2 false statements & 3 misleading statements in @ATFDirectorRC‘s post about the FBI’s warrantless “NICS Monitoring” program
1⃣ “[NICS Alerts] are NOT used to monitor lawful gun purchasers.” FALSE.
Think about what this means: If a person passes… https://t.co/N6qABbO0H6
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 18, 2026
GOA did not claim that thousands of those alerts remain active today. The more important point is that neither Cekada nor FBI Director Kash Patel has disclosed the current number of alerts across every agency using the system.
Passing NICS Does Not Make a Buyer a Criminal
Cekada claimed NICS alerts are not used to monitor lawful firearm purchasers. That assertion collapses under the program’s basic operation.
When a person passes NICS and the dealer is authorized to proceed, the government has determined that the buyer is not prohibited from receiving the firearm. If the FBI then sends investigators a real-time notification about that approved transaction, the government is monitoring a lawful gun buyer.
Suspicion does not change the buyer’s legal status. An investigation is not a conviction, a prohibition, or a warrant. The Second Amendment does not become optional because an agent opens a file and wants to know whether an American buys another gun.
As AmmoLand News reported, the Brady Act authorized NICS to determine whether a proposed firearm transfer would violate the law. Congress simultaneously prohibited federal officials from using that system to create a registry of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions involving people who are not prohibited.
NICS Monitoring turns that supposedly limited eligibility check into a federal tripwire. Investigators select a person first. The FBI then watches for future background checks and alerts the requesting agency when the person attempts another firearm transaction—even if the transaction is approved.
That is surveillance of lawful conduct, no matter what label the government puts on it.
“61 Alerts” Number Is Not the Whole Program
Cekada’s disclosure provides useful information about ATF’s present use of NICS alerts. It does not establish the size of the broader FBI program.
GOA says ATF is only one of several agencies that have used NICS Monitoring. Its response identifies the Marshals Service, Secret Service, and Army among the federal entities that established alerts in the past. Until the FBI discloses a systemwide accounting, Americans do not know how many people are currently being monitored, which agencies requested the alerts, or how long the resulting purchase information is retained.
ATF has narrowed its own policy since the program was exposed. That is not the same thing as abolishing the system. A future anti-gun administration would inherit the machinery needed to watch the firearm purchases of disfavored Americans in real time.
Gun owners have already seen where that road leads. GOA says the Biden administration used NICS Monitoring against people because they spent what agents considered too much money on firearms, bought the same models as their roommates, were connected to January 6, or were suspected of violating California’s ban on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles.
The Trump administration should not defend a surveillance power simply because its current officials promise to exercise more restraint than Biden’s appointees did.
The Program Became Public Only After AmmoLand Exposed It
Cekada also claimed NICS Monitoring was not secret because ATF published a policy governing its use in 2025. That formulation rewrites the timeline.
AmmoLand first exposed NICS Monitoring in April 2021 after receiving a leaked internal ATF document. AmmoLand provided the document to GOA, which then pursued the paper trail through Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation.
GOA says federal agencies delayed or ignored records requests, and ATF later obtained a protective order restricting the organization from releasing certain documents that the agency had inadvertently produced without its intended redactions. GOA is appealing that order.
A government program does not become retroactively public because officials acknowledged and narrowed it after a whistleblower, a news organization, a gun-rights group, and members of Congress dragged it into the light.
End NICS Monitoring
GOA’s rebuttal leaves the administration with questions that cannot be answered by comparing 61 ATF alerts with millions of annual background checks.
What statute authorizes the FBI to monitor the approved firearm transactions of non-prohibited Americans? What judicial authorization is required before the government watches someone exercise an enumerated right? How many alerts remain active across every participating agency?
The administration should answer those questions, preserve the records for congressional investigation, notify the Americans who were monitored, and shut the program down.
NICS was sold as a point-of-sale eligibility check. It should never have existed as a federal permission slip for exercising the Second Amendment, but even the Brady Act did not authorize the FBI to convert it into a prospective gun-buyer surveillance network.
Narrowing an unconstitutional abuse does not cure it. NICS Monitoring must be abolished.
About Duncan Johnson:
Duncan Johnson is a lifelong firearms enthusiast and unwavering defender of the Second Amendment—where “shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says. A graduate of George Mason University, he enjoys competing in local USPSA and multi-gun competitions whenever he’s not covering the latest in gun rights and firearm policy. Duncan is a regular contributor and editor-in-chief for AmmoLand News and is responsible for AmmoLand’s daily gun-rights reporting and industry coverage.
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