Gun Owners of America (GOA) is wasting no time with the new session of Congress starting. With Trump about to enter office and Republicans in control of both chambers, the gun rights group is preparing to lobby for its top priorities.
One of GOA’s top priorities is for Congress to force the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to destroy what it calls the illegal gun registry. The ATF has around a billion digitized records at its Martinsburg, WV Out of Business Office. The ATF claims that these records are not a registry, but the gun rights group disagrees.
GOA will push Congress to take action against the ATF and demand that the government agency delete its database. The ATF is legally not allowed to keep a registry but has played fast and loose with semantics to claim that its database is not a registry because it isn’t searchable. The system keeps the files in PDF format, and with just a few clicks, documents can be accessed through optical character recognition (OCR) to make them searchable.
There have been attempts in the past to force the ATF to delete the documents, but chances were slim without control of Congress and Joe Biden in the White House. With the new Congress now in session and Donald Trump returning to the office of President, GOA believes it has a real chance of accomplishing its goal of forcing the ATF to delete its files on millions of gun owners.
Another priority the gun rights group is pushing is national reciprocity for concealed carry permits. Although the final goal is for national constitutional carry, the chances of that happening are low. National reciprocity actually has a chance of passing, with President Trump signaling his openness to it. A national reciprocity bill would force all states to recognize each other’s concealed carry permits, much like how every state must recognize each other’s driver’s license.
“With President Trump calling for the passage of the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, with Majority Leader John Thune as a former lead sponsor of the bill, and with Speaker Mike Johnson being an outspoken proponent of nationwide carry, the GOA-backed bill is closer than ever before to final passage,” said Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for GOA. “However, we’re going to need every gun owner to also become a Second Amendment activist to help us hold Congress accountable to their campaign promises and to push this across the finish line!”
GOA also wants suppressors removed from the National Firearms Act (NFA) registry. The United States is one of the only countries requiring additional suppressor registrations along with a $200 fee for a tax stamp. Deregulation of suppressors will save Americans millions of dollars and will save their hearing. There is a misconception that suppressors are tools of assassins and that they make guns completely silent. In reality, the purpose of suppressors is to lower the noise levels to a safe volume to prevent hearing loss. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to remove suppressors from the NFA registry, including the Hearing Protection Act (HPA). These bills now have a real chance of passing.
Another issue on GOA’s radar is removing funding for “red flag” laws. These are also known as extreme risk protection orders (ERPO). GOA and other groups complain that these laws lack due process protections since the EPROs are issued through an ex parte hearing where the “red flag” target is unaware that the hearing is even happening. Although no federal “red flag” law exists, the federal government bribes states into implementing the constitutionally dubious law through grants. GOA hopes to pressure Congress to stop these payments, which will protect Americans’ rights and save taxpayers money.
There is real hope. For the past four years, gun owners had to play defense. According to GOA, it is time to push forward and go on the offense.
About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
