S. 4776 — Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act

This section expresses congressional findings that the Tiahrt Amendments impede gun law enforcement by requiring destruction of most background check records within 24 hours and barring annual inventory audits of gun shops, increase gun trafficking to the criminal market, and limit researchers’ access to data on how guns flow across state lines and how prohibited purchasers obtain firearms. It further finds that more than 141,000 people are shot each year in the United States and that the National Tracing Center processed 500,000 trace requests in 2023.

This section repeals limitations on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ use of database information that were enacted in appropriations acts for fiscal years 2005 through 2012. It confines those restrictions to the single fiscal year in each act rather than extending them to subsequent years.

This section removes the prohibition on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives requiring licensed firearms dealers to conduct physical checks of their firearms inventory in any fiscal year after 2013.

This section eliminates the prohibition on consolidation or centralization in the Department of Justice of firearms acquisition and disposition records maintained by Federal firearms licensees.

This section repeals the requirement that the Attorney General destroy all records generated by the national instant criminal background check system within 24 hours.