The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) documents, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, are keeping tabs on U.S. citizens who have purchased firearms to ensure that their personal information is in the hands of the federal government.
The agency obtained the information by using a process where the ATF can collect and store records on private gun transactions from licensed gun stores once they go out of business. The data is then stored at a federal site in West Virginia.
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The New York Times reported that there are so many records stored at this location that the floor collapsed several years ago.
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The practice of collecting these records has drawn sharp criticism from Pro-Second Amendment groups who say the Biden Administration is utilizing the information to create a national database of gun owners, which is blatantly against U.S. law.
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It also comes as the Biden Administration prepares to propose a series of firearms-related regulations. In the fiscal year 2021, the ATF processed 54.7 million out-of-business records, according to the internal documents obtained by firearms advocacy group Gun Owners of America and shared with the Free Beacon.
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The internal documents show that 53.8 million were paper records, and another 887,000 were electronic from locations that went out of business.
A spokesman told the outlet that ATF's 'National Tracing Center processes millions of out of business records each month,' yet claimed 'those out of business records do not constitute an initiation or continuation of any federal gun registry.’
The Gun Owners of America's Director of Federal Affairs, Aidan Johnston, commented: 'As if the addition of over 50 million records to an ATF gun registry wasn't unconstitutional or illegal enough, the Biden Administration's misuse of 'out-of-business' records doesn't end there.'
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"Instead of maintaining the right of [licensed firearm dealers] to destroy Firearm Transaction Records after 20 years," he continued, 'buried within Biden's proposed regulations is a provision that would mean every single Firearm Transaction Record going forward would eventually be sent to ATF's registry in West Virginia."
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The Gun Control Act of 1968 mandates that licensed firearm dealers who close down must hand over their record to the ATF to be processed and maintained in a database that cannot be searched by the name of the person who purchased the gun.
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The agency asserts that after the record is created, the physical records are destroyed.
However, this practice has faced a new line of scrutiny as President Joe Biden prepares to implement new restrictions on purchasing and owning a firearm.
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