In fact, a top gun manufacturer lobbyist himself recently tweeted that he toured the ATF’s crime gun trace center and concluded that the ATF “does not maintain an illegal gun registry.”

Current law plainly states the uses and limitations of ATF’s records system, including requirements that all gun stores maintain records of firearm sales. When a gun store goes out of business, its records must be transferred to the ATF for use in tracing guns used in crimes. Tracing occurs through an ATF records system called OBRIS—Out of Business Records Imaging System—which is accessed only after a crime occurs and data is requested from a law enforcement entity. One third of all crime gun traces are conducted on OBRIS, making it an essential law enforcement tool to keeping our streets safe.

Under the George W. Bush administration, ATF began digitizing paper records in its collection into non-searchable images, a process that continued through both Democratic and Republican administrations alike. In fact, nearly 66 percent of record digitization from the entire ATF database occurred under the Trump administration.