Gun purchase records are kept for different lengths of time depending on who holds them. A federally licensed dealer must keep the sale paperwork for as long as the business operates. The FBI destroys the identifying information from an approved background check within 24 hours. And if the dealer later closes, every record it ever generated goes to the ATF and stays there indefinitely. There is no single retention clock, and federal law forbids combining these records into one registry.
What the Dealer Keeps, and for How Long
Every sale by a federally licensed dealer to a non-licensee generates an ATF Form 4473, the Firearms Transaction Record.1Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Federal Firearms Licensee Quick Reference and Best Practices Guide It captures the buyer’s identifying information, the background-check result, and details of the firearm. The form stays with the dealer, not the government.
Since the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act took effect in 2022, licensed dealers must keep every completed Form 4473 for as long as they remain in business. The previous rule required retention for only 20 years. The updated form reflecting this change became mandatory on April 1, 2023.2Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). ATF Form 4473 – Firearms Transaction Record Revisions Paper forms more than 20 years old can be moved to a separate warehouse, which ATF treats as part of the business premises for inspection purposes.3Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Firearms Transaction Record – ATF Form 4473 (5300.9)
When a background check runs but the sale never happens — because of a denial, an unresolved delay, or the buyer changing their mind — the dealer still keeps the Form 4473 for at least five years from the date of the background check.1Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Federal Firearms Licensee Quick Reference and Best Practices Guide
Alongside the Form 4473, every dealer keeps an Acquisition and Disposition record, commonly called the “bound book,” that logs every firearm entering and leaving the business.4eRegulations – ATF eRegulations. 27 CFR 478.125 Record of Receipt and Disposition The bound book runs on a different clock than the 4473. Dealers and collectors must keep A&D records for at least 20 years, after which they can either continue storing them or deliver older records to ATF.1Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Federal Firearms Licensee Quick Reference and Best Practices Guide Importers and manufacturers must keep their A&D records permanently.
What Happens When the Dealer Closes
The life-of-the-business rule has a natural endpoint. When a licensed dealer goes out of business, every record — all Forms 4473 and all bound books — must be shipped to ATF’s National Tracing Center within 30 days.5Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). FFL Out-of-Business Records Request The NTC stores them in its Out-of-Business Records Repository and keeps them indefinitely. There is no destruction schedule for out-of-business records.
The practical effect: if you bought a firearm from a shop that later closed, the ATF now holds the only surviving record of that sale, and it will hold it permanently. If the shop is still open, the record still sits on the shop’s shelf.
How Long the FBI Keeps Background Check Records
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, run by the FBI, is a separate record stream from the dealer’s paperwork, and its retention rules are much shorter. The timeline depends on the outcome of the check.
- Approved transactions: when the check comes back “proceed,” all identifying information about the buyer is destroyed within 24 hours. Only the transaction number and the date survive beyond that window.6eCFR. 28 CFR 25.9 – Retention and Destruction of Records in the System
- Delayed transactions: when a check can’t be resolved immediately and stays open, identifying information is destroyed within 90 days of the original inquiry.6eCFR. 28 CFR 25.9 – Retention and Destruction of Records in the System
- Denied transactions: denial records are retained in the NICS Audit Log for 10 years, then transferred to another FBI-maintained database.6eCFR. 28 CFR 25.9 – Retention and Destruction of Records in the System
The 24-hour destruction rule for approved checks is one of the most aggressive data-deletion requirements in federal law. It means the FBI cannot use NICS records to build a log of who bought firearms. The dealer’s copy of the Form 4473 is the only surviving record of a completed sale, and it stays with the dealer.
Private Sales Between Individuals
Everything above applies to sales through federally licensed dealers. Federal law imposes no record-keeping requirement on private sellers who don’t hold a license.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 922 – Unlawful Acts A private individual who sells a hunting rifle to a neighbor has no federal obligation to document the transaction, run a background check, or notify anyone.
This is the biggest gap in the record-keeping picture. Once a gun moves from a licensed dealer to a private buyer, a subsequent private resale may leave no paper trail at all. Roughly 20 states have enacted laws requiring private sales to go through a licensed dealer, which effectively closes the gap by generating a Form 4473 and a background check for every transfer. States without such requirements leave private sales entirely undocumented at the federal level.
Why There’s No Central Registry
Federal law prohibits the government from consolidating firearm records into a centralized registry. Under 18 U.S.C. § 926(a), no regulation may require that dealer records be transferred to or recorded at a government-controlled facility, and no system for registering firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions may be established.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 926 – Rules and Regulations
That statute is the reason the retention system looks the way it does. Forms 4473 stay scattered across individual dealers around the country. NICS data is destroyed on a tight schedule. The only purchase records the ATF actually accumulates are those from dealers who no longer exist. The design is deliberately decentralized.
A separate set of restrictions known as the Tiahrt Amendment, first attached to ATF appropriations in 2003, limits what the ATF can do with the trace data it does hold. The amendment generally restricts ATF from releasing trace data to the public and confines its use to law enforcement investigations. These restrictions have been renewed annually through the appropriations process.
State Rules Can Add Their Own Timelines
Some states layer additional record-keeping on top of the federal system. These vary widely and can include firearm registration, state-level purchase permits that generate their own paper trail, or point-of-sale data maintained by state or local agencies. Retention periods for state-created records differ from state to state, and some states maintain registries that would be illegal at the federal level. If your state requires registration or a purchase permit, those records follow your state’s rules rather than the federal timelines above.