(1) illegal gun sales and illegal gun purchases
contribute substantially to crime in the United
States;
(2) many persons who sell and buy guns cross
State lines to do so and transport guns across State
lines for the purpose of reselling guns and for use
in criminal activity;
(3) those intent on selling and purchasing guns
illegally are adept at making sales and purchases ap-
pear to be legal and maintenance of records of sales
facilitates law enforcement’s ability to investigate il-
legal sales;
(4) these illegal sales and the uses to which the
illegally sold guns are put have an effect on inter-
state commerce;
(5) law enforcement’s access to records col-
lected over a reasonable length of time is essential
to law enforcement’s ability to investigate and limit
illegal gun sales;
(6) the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System (NICS) is the primary law enforce-
ment tool for preventing illegal gun sales and pur-
chases by federally licensed firearms dealers to fel-
ons, fugitives, the mentally ill, and other prohibited
purchasers;
(7) NICS was designed to include an audit log
which acts not as a gun registry, but as a device es-
sential to effectively investigating and identifying in-
stances in which NICS is being defrauded or abused;
(8) these instances of fraud and abuse that the
NICS audit log protects against include the use of
false or stolen identification purchase guns, straw
purchases, and circumstances where dealers are vio-
lating individuals’ privacy rights by running back-
ground checks on people other than actual gun
transferees;
(9) without the ability to employ the audit log
in legitimate law enforcement investigations, there is
no way to adequately ensure the integrity of NICS,
including guaranteeing that Federal firearm licens-
ees or other unauthorized users are not accessing a
system that contains a substantial amount of crimi-
nal history, mental health, and other personal infor-
mation that should not be accessed except in connec-
tion with appropriate background checks; and
(10) Congress has the power pursuant to the
Interstate Commerce Clause, and other provisions of
the Constitution to ensure, by enactment of this Act,
that gun dealers and buyers do not fraudulently sell
and purchase firearms and to guarantee that indi-
viduals’ privacy rights are not violated by misuse of
NICS.
SEC. 3. GUN SALE ANTI-FRAUD AND PRIVACY PROTECTION.
(a) PREVENTION OF FRAUD AND ABUSE.—Section
922(t)(2)(C) of title 18, United States Code, is amended
by inserting ‘‘, not less than 90 days after the date on
which the licensee first contacts the system with respect
to the transfer’’ before the period.
(b) INTERAGENCY COOPERATION.—Section 922(t)(2)
of such title is amended by adding after and below the
end the following:
‘‘The Attorney General shall make available to the Sec-
retary of the Treasury the records maintained in accord-
ance with subparagraph (C), to enable the Secretary to
conduct audits to detect fraud and misuse of the system
and to protect the privacy and security of the information
in the system. The Secretary of the Treasury shall main-
tain and destroy the records in accordance with all laws
applicable to the records.’’.
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall take effect
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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