Republicans in the House have crafted legislation to bar the Biden regime from gathering data on gun buyers, which apparently has been going on for quite some time.
“Congressional Republicans have introduced a bill that would eliminate the federal government’s database of firearms purchases and prevent the Biden administration from collecting data on gun sales from dealers who go out of business,” The Blaze reported on Monday, noting that the legislation was introduced by Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas.
Cloud says that the bill, called the “No Retaining Every Gun In a System That Restricts Your Rights Act” (NOREGISTRY), would bar the federal government from creating a firearms registry, which it has essentially begun to do, despite denials.
“Cloud filed the bill in response to reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is in possession of nearly 1 billion records detailing gun purchases by American citizens,” the outlet reported.
“ATF collected this information under a provision of federal law that requires licensed firearms or ammunition dealers to submit records to the Department of Justice when their business is discontinued,” the report noted further.
The Blaze further explained:
The Gun Control Act of 1968 requires stores that close down to turn over their records of gun transactions for the past 20 years to the federal government, though the Biden administration has sought to remove the 20-year restriction to collect records in perpetuity. Gun rights advocates say this would be the first step toward the development of a national gun registry, which could be abused by the government to interfere with Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
“The stakes have never been higher for our Second Amendment rights. We currently have an anti-gun president and ATF collecting firearm records for a national registry with the intent of pushing more firearm restrictions, and potentially even eventual confiscation,” Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, said.
“Representative Cloud’s legislation is a major step in the right direction to defend our rights and dissolve this unconstitutional registry — every elected official who supports our Second Amendment should get behind it,” he noted further in a statement.
If the measure becomes law, the BATF will be required to “destroy all firearm transaction records” within 90 days. Also, sections of existing federal statutes that require gun dealers who go out of business to hand over their records would be repealed, and the director of the agency would be required to disclose to Congress how many records were destroyed.
“Americans have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms — to protect themselves and their families,” Cloud said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on the legislation.
“This past year we’ve seen the Biden administration increase scrutiny on law-abiding Americans while turning a blind eye to criminals and corruption. The Biden administration’s actions have shown their intent to restrict the rights of gun owners across our nation and Congress must oppose them with full force. My bill would delete and dismantle ATF’s record keeping, restore privacy for law-abiding American gun owners, and prevent a federal firearms registry from being created,” Cloud said.
ATF disclosed to lawmakers last month that the agency has an astounding 920,664,765 records of firearms sales in a database dating back to 2006.
Having a law barring this kind of firearms information collection is a good start, but as we’ve seen in the past, without any provisions calling for automatic indictments of officials who violate said laws, this measure will become moot, unfortunately.
