Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08929

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. RIN 1140-AA95; Docket No. ATF-2026-0003. I am a community activist who spends my days in neighborhoods that are disproportionately devastated by gun violence. I am writing to express my urgent opposition to the proposed rule that would limit the retention of firearms acquisition and disposition (A&D) records to 20 or 30 years. Our communities deserve to know that when a gun is used to take a life, the system has every possible tool available to trace that weapon back to its point of origin. By proposing to end the requirement for permanent record retention, the Bureau is actively choosing to destroy the evidence trails that families rely on to find justice. The rationale provided for this change rests on the assumption that older records are less valuable for tracing crime guns. From where I stand, this is a dangerous miscalculation of how gun trafficking actually impacts our streets. We are not just dealing with guns that were sold yesterday; we are dealing with a proliferation of firearms that remain in circulation for decades. When a cold case resurfaces after twenty years, or when a firearm is recovered at a crime scene long after its initial sale, that record is the only link we have to identifying how that weapon entered the illegal market. If those records have been destroyed because of this new policy, those cases will never be solved, and the families left behind will be denied the closure they deserve. Furthermore, these records are essential for identifying ownership and tracking the movement of firearms. When we advocate for stricter accountability, we are asking for the transparency that comes with knowing the history of these weapons. Reducing record retention periods creates massive, avoidable gaps in our collective ability to understand the lifecycle of crime guns. It serves the administrative convenience of licensees and the government at the expense of public safety. The current policy of permanent retention is a necessary safeguard for our communities. To move away from it now is a step backward that will undoubtedly hinder law enforcement, protect bad actors in the secondary market, and weaken our ability to curb the violence that families in my community live with every single day. I urge the Bureau to reject this proposed rule entirely and maintain the requirement that all firearms A&D records be retained permanently.