Firearms Data: ATF Did Not Always Comply with the Appropriations Act Restriction and Should Better Adhere to Its Policies, GAO-16-552: Published: Jun 30, 2016. Publicly Released: Aug 1, 2016.

“To carry out its criminal and regulatory enforcement responsibilities, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has 25 firearms-related data systems, 16 of which contain retail firearms purchaser information from a federal firearms licensee (FFL)—such as firearms importers and retailers. GAO selected 4 systems for review that are used in the firearms tracing process, based on factors such as the inclusion of retail purchaser information and original data. The Out-of-Business Records Imaging System (OBRIS) stores nonsearchable images of firearms records from out-of-business FFLs. Such FFLs are required by law to provide their records to ATF. Access 2000 (A2K) provides servers for National Tracing Center (NTC) personnel to electronically search participating FFLs’ records at their premises for firearms disposition information during a trace. The Firearm Recovery Notification Program (FRNP) maintains information on firearms that have not yet been recovered by law enforcement, but are suspected of being involved in criminal activity and are associated with an ATF criminal investigation. Multiple Sales (MS) includes firearms information from multiple sales reports. FFLs are required by law to report to ATF sales of two or more revolvers or pistols during 5 consecutive business days. ATF policy requires that certain information in MS be deleted after 2 years if the firearm has not been connected to a trace. Of the 4 data systems, 2 fully comply and 2 did not always comply with the appropriations act restriction prohibiting consolidation or centralization of FFL records…”