A group of House Republicans wrote a letter Monday demanding information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that they feel could prove the agency is creating an unlawful federal gun registry.
'It is critical that the [ATF] does not use its power to encroach on the privacy of gun owners and restrict their Second Amendment rights,' the letter reads.
It comes after a report earlier this month found that the Biden administration has been compiling records of 54 million gun owners to possibly create a database of Americans who possess a firearm.
The letter from 52 Republicans, led by Texas Representative Michael Cloud, requests the agency provide answers to five questions posed in the letter by the end of the year.
In the queries addressed to Acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson, the lawmakers express they fear the new rule could be a workaround of Congress' prohibition of a federal registry of gun owners.
Details emerged this month that the ATF was collecting and keeping records of firearms purchases from stores that went out of business.
The questions in the letter include how many records the ATF's Out-of-Business Records Centers (OOB) have collected in total and how many have been processed into digital format.
It also questions if the collection of these records helped lead to the prosecution of violent criminals over the last three years – and how far back those records date.
Lawmakers wrote to Acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson to demand information about potentially creating a workaround to Congress' ban on a federal registry for gun owners
The letter continues: '18 U.S. Code § 926 prohibits 'any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions [from] be[ing] established.'
'Explain in detail how the Out-of-Business Records Center policy combined with proposed rule change in ATF-2021R-05 does not violate the statutory restriction on a federal gun or gun owner registry.'
'Please provide a written response to the questions above no later than December 31, 2021,' it adds.
Those notable lawmakers who signed on the letter include Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Elise Stefanik of New York and Matt Gaetz of Florida.
ATF documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show the agency is keeping tabs on U.S. citizens who have purchased firearms in order to keep their personal information in the hands of the federal government.
The agency was able to obtain the information by using a process where the ATF can collect and store records on private gun transactions from licensed gun stores after they go out of business.
The information is stored at a federal site in West Virginia. There are so many records stored at this location that several years ago, The New York Times reported, the
