FORBIDDEN Database Contains SSNs of Gun Owners

The federal government may be secretly tracking over a billion gun transactions in direct violation of laws designed to prevent exactly that kind of surveillance state database.

Story Snapshot

Congressional members accuse the ATF of maintaining an illegal gun registry with an estimated 1.1 billion records through a system called OBRIS
Rep. Michael Cloud and colleagues have waited over 290 days for answers after their initial February 2025 inquiry went ignored by ATF leadership
Federal law has prohibited centralized gun registries since 1979, but the ATF digitized 920 million records by 2021 and continues adding millions more annually
The database includes gun owners’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and detailed firearm information despite ATF claims it’s merely a tracing tool

A Digital Database Built in the Shadows

The Out-of-Business Records Imaging System sits at the center of a brewing constitutional showdown. When federal firearms dealers close their doors, they ship their transaction records to the ATF for indefinite storage. What started as paper files in boxes transformed under the Biden administration into a searchable digital archive. Gun Owners of America exposed this operation in November 2021 when internal ATF documents revealed over 50 million records had been digitized in a single fiscal year. The ATF confirmed it possessed 920 million records with 94 percent already computerized.

Congress Has Explicit Prohibitions Against This

Federal law couldn’t be clearer about gun registries. Since 1979, congressional appropriations riders have blocked the ATF from creating centralized databases of firearm sales. The Gun Control Act of 1968 established a deliberately decentralized system where dealers maintain their own records for at least 20 years, submitting them only when going out of business. The FBI must destroy approved background check records within 24 hours. OBRIS circumvents these safeguards by centralizing what Congress intended to remain scattered and making searchable what was meant to stay archived.

The Numbers Tell a Disturbing Story

The trajectory reveals systematic expansion. The ATF processed 56 million additional records in fiscal year 2022 alone. Extrapolating from confirmed figures and known processing rates, congressional investigators estimate the database now contains approximately 1.1 billion records. Each entry potentially links a specific American to specific firearms through names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and serial numbers. The ATF insists this constitutes a tracing tool for criminal investigations, not a registry. Critics point out that a centralized, searchable database of gun owners is definitionally a registry regardless of its stated purpose.

Stonewalling and Strategic Silence

Eighteen members of Congress sent their first inquiry on February 14, 2025, shortly after President Trump signed an executive order directing review of Biden-era firearm policies. ATF Deputy Director Robert Cekada received the letter and said nothing. By December 10, 2025, Rep. Michael Cloud issued a follow-up demanding answers by February 10, 2026. Cloud stated bluntly that Congress and the American people have waited long enough. The silence itself speaks volumes about an agency operating beyond effective oversight despite congressional appropriations authority.

What This Means for Gun Owners and Rights

The practical implications extend beyond philosophical debates about government overreach. A centralized database creates infrastructure for enforcement actions that decentralized records physically cannot support. Confiscation requires knowing who owns what and where they live. OBRIS provides exactly that information at scale. The system also enables financial targeting, as some banks already refuse services to firearms dealers. Gun owners face the prospect that private transactions from decades past sit in a federal database accessible by future administrations with different priorities regarding the Second Amendment.

The constitutional questions matter as much as the practical concerns. Congress passed specific laws to prevent this scenario based on hard experience with how governments use such registries. The ATF built the system anyway by exploiting a technical distinction between voluntary dealer sales reporting and mandatory out-of-business record submission. Whether courts view this as clever compliance or illegal evasion will determine if 1.1 billion records disappear or become permanent federal infrastructure. Pending legislation like the No REGISTRY Rights Act would allow destruction of these records and prevent future accumulation.