The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives could be moving toward a federal gun registry, a group of House Republicans warned Monday.
In a letter to acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson, Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, along with 51 of his Republican colleagues, addressed concerns about the agency's proposed rule that requires gun shops to keep their reports beyond a 20-year period.
Currently, stores can destroy records after 20 years.
"The Biden administration is yet again ignoring the real threats against America and instead using political leverage to encroach on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens," Cloud told Fox News.
"This proposed rule would be a giant leap toward a federal firearm registry, which is explicitly banned by law," Cloud added.
"Requiring federal firearm licensees to preserve records older than 20 years will enable the Biden administration to collect more information on law-abiding gun owners, all with the purpose of eventually having a registry of every gun owner in the United States."
Under Biden, the ATF has collected 54.7 million out-of-business paper records and 887,000 electronic records detailing gun transactions and other private firearm information. The records are kept in a federal warehouse managed by the ATF in West Virginia.
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