During a September 15, 2026, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about NICS Monitoring. The exchange raised questions about a system that AmmoLand News first reported in 2021.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and other federal agencies use the NICS monitoring system to watch people they have already flagged as suspects. Instead of querying NICS only when a licensed dealer runs a background check on a proposed transfer, the system lets investigators receive alerts when a targeted person later tries to buy a gun. In practice, that turns a point-of-sale Brady check into an ongoing surveillance tool.
Agencies can follow a subject’s firearm purchases over time, even when the buyer is not prohibited and the purchase itself is lawful. That is the arrangement Cruz pressed Patel about, and it is the arrangement described in the FBI records obtained through FOIA.
FOIA Records Show NICS Monitoring Targeted Lawful Gun Buyers
AmmoLand News obtained a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response that Gun Owners of America (GOA) received after requesting information about the system from the FBI. Most of the records date to the Biden administration. Although the ATF claims the system’s use has changed since Robert Cekada became ATF director, the FOIA response is concerning because the stated reasons for monitoring some people are weak.
The records also raise a more basic issue: whether the system is legal at all.
First, consider how the system was used under the Biden administration. Some investigations appear legitimate. Others look more like fishing expeditions. To borrow the line attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, head of Stalin’s secret police, the program sometimes resembles a “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime” operation. Multiple subjects were watched on little more than vague hunches.
BREAKING @Kash_Patel confirms FBI spies on lawful gun sales:
Cruz: “GOA discovered a secret FBI program called NICS Monitoring, used to track firearm purchases of Americans who were legally eligible to buy a gun but were suspected of a crime. Is that right?”
Patel: “Yes.” https://t.co/driyPHIK5G pic.twitter.com/85OVORHkDL
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 15, 2026
Why These Gun Buyers Were Flagged
One person monitored in 2023 had been trespassed. The government justified watching his gun purchases because the officers who trespassed him believed he was “experiencing a mental health crisis.” He had no firearms on him at the time of the trespass, and the report does not describe any threat to himself or others. That raises a question: does a suspected mental-health issue justify warrantless monitoring of firearm purchases?
Another person was monitored because he bought a firearm and was involved in an “anti-social movement.” The FOIA records do not identify the movement. They do make clear that the person had committed no crime and was not a prohibited person. To many readers, that looks like monitoring for a thought crime. Being antisocial is not a crime that should trigger an investigation.
Another subject was monitored because he bought the same type of firearms as his two roommates. Many gun owners would see that as ordinary. The Biden administration treated it as grounds for surveillance. People who live together often buy the same guns for many reasons, including a shared preference for a particular model for carry.
Searching for a crime through NICS Monitoring is a serious overreach by law enforcement.
The government also began monitoring a buyer after he spent $8,000 on firearms in a single transaction. Agents noted that the purchase brought his collection’s total value to $10,000 and treated that amount as excessive. The buyer was not prohibited and had not committed a crime. His only offense was spending money on guns.
Another man was monitored after he was pulled over in a “high-crime area” with a firearm in his car. He did not have a concealed-carry permit, but he did have a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card. The stop rested on the location, not on any crime. That looks like profiling. High-crime areas are often where people most need a firearm for self-defense. Under the Biden administration, having a gun where it was most needed became a ticket to warrantless monitoring.
ATF Restricted the Program but Did Not End It
Although the ATF has gotten most of the blame for abusing NICS monitoring, it isn’t the only government agency using the system. To that extent, if a Democrat returns to power in the future, there is a good chance the NICS monitoring system might be abused by a future ATF.
The onus to the American people lies directly at the feet of the FBI and its director, Kash Patel. Mr. Patel could order the system shut down.
Even if the ATF agreed not to use the system, which is unlikely, other agencies would still be able to use it to spy on American gun buyers. This reasoning has led many to call for a complete shutdown of the program. That might hurt some investigations, but it will guarantee that it will not be used to spy on law-abiding gun owners.
Even if the ATF and other agencies no longer use NICS monitoring the way it did under the Biden administration, that does not make the practice legal. Evidence suggests the system conflicts with the Brady law that created NICS.
Under 28 C.F.R. § 25.6(c)(2) and § 25.8(g), NICS may not be used to “[i]nvestigate a person unrelated to a proposed transfer.” The NICS monitoring system does exactly that. It watches a person’s purchases in connection with some other “crime” or activity. The Brady framework also bars use of NICS for general intelligence gathering.
The NICS Index may be accessed for purposes unrelated to a Brady transfer only in narrow circumstances:
- providing information to criminal-justice agencies about firearm- or explosives-related permits and licenses;
- responding to ATF inquiries connected with civil or criminal enforcement of the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act; or
- disposing of firearms held by a federal, state, tribal, or local criminal-justice agency.
That is not a general license for agencies to use NICS for ordinary employment checks, licensing, intelligence collection, or law-enforcement screening. The government might argue that some access is justified because of possible violations of the GCA or NFA, but a court or Congress would decide that.
Access and use must be tied to an authorized firearm transfer, firearm-related licensing, system administration, an appeal, an audit, or a lawful enforcement purpose. The government may retain certain denied-person or prohibited-person information. It may not use NICS as a general-purpose background-check database or as a registry of firearm owners or firearm transactions.
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 written about the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons. Follow him on X at @right2bear, or at www.crumpy.com.
