S. 3289 — Crime Gun Tracing Modernization Act of 2025

This section directs the ATF National Tracing Center to establish and maintain, not later than three years after enactment, electronic, searchable databases of all firearm importation, production, shipment, receipt, sale, or other disposition records submitted by federal firearms licensees (FFLs). Licensees may voluntarily provide the National Tracing Center with electronic access to their required records or relinquish non-electronic records after 10 years from the transaction date (or, for paper acquisition and disposition books, after 10 years without open disposition entries); the databases must be searchable by date of acquisition or disposition, license number, and firearm descriptors (i.e., manufacturer, importer, model, serial number, type, and caliber or gauge) but not by any individual's personally identifiable information, with search results including the full relevant record contents. (As background, the National Tracing Center supports law enforcement firearm tracing investigations.) The National Tracing Center may remotely access these databases, and state firearms registration or pawnbroker databases (with state permission), solely for (1) bona fide investigations by federal, state, local, tribal, or foreign law enforcement; (2) foreign intelligence information (as defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 U.S.C. 1801) or information necessary to understand or assess it; or (3) compliance inspections of active licensees submitting non-electronic records; the provision applies notwithstanding other laws or funding restrictions. The Government Accountability Office must audit compliance annually beginning one year after enactment (and biennially thereafter) and report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.