H.R. 4223 — Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act

This section states congressional findings that the Tiahrt Amendments (i.e., restrictions on ATF firearm trace data and NICS background check records) impede gun law enforcement, increase gun trafficking, and limit research on illegal gun flows, citing studies from Johns Hopkins (2012), University of Pittsburgh (2016), and RAND (2020), along with 2020 statistics of over 165,000 people shot, 21,000 firearm homicide or unintentional shooting deaths (up 33% from 2019), and 490,800 ATF trace requests.

This section repeals certain limitations on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) use of database information on firearms traces and multiple handgun sales by (1) striking the sixth proviso entirely from the FY2012 appropriations act; (2) confining the sixth provisos in the FY2010, FY2009, and FY2008 appropriations acts to those single fiscal years (from "beginning in fiscal year [X] and thereafter"); and (3) striking "with respect to any fiscal year" from the sixth provisos in the FY2006 and FY2005 appropriations acts. (As background, these provisos—enacted annually from FY2005 through FY2012—generally prohibited ATF from using appropriated funds to consolidate or disclose such records except to qualified law enforcement for investigative purposes. Thus, the restrictions no longer limit ATF database activities after the specified fiscal years.)

This section repeals the prohibition applicable to FY2013 and any fiscal year thereafter on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) requiring federal firearms licensees to conduct physical checks of their firearms inventory. (Thus, ATF may now impose such a requirement on licensees.)

This section eliminates the prohibition—in a note to 18 U.S.C. 923 from the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012—on using Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) funds to consolidate or centralize firearms acquisition and disposition records maintained by federal firearms licensees. (These records log firearms transfers for tracing in criminal investigations; thus, ATF may now create a centralized database of such records.)

This section repeals the requirement under Section 511 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (34 U.S.C. 40901 note), to destroy instant criminal background check records within 24 hours. (Thus, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is no longer subject to that requirement with respect to records of approved checks conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which federal firearms licensees use to determine whether a prospective transferee is prohibited from receiving a firearm under federal or state law.)