YourVoice.Now Summary
Gun LawsTransparency & AccountabilityGun background-check records would no longer be destroyed within 24 hours — and gun dealers would face more inspections.
Gun Laws
Today the FBI must erase the record of an approved gun check within 24 hours. Section 5 pulls that deadline out of seven yearly spending laws, so the records could be held.
A 2012 spending law bars the Justice Department from pooling dealers' sale and transfer records in one place. Section 3 strikes that bar.
When a gun dealer closes, its sale records go to the ATF. A 2012 rule bars pulling them up by a person's name or ID number. Section 9 removes it.
Federal law lets the ATF inspect a dealer's records only once every 12 months. Section 11 rewrites that clause, so checks could happen more often.
Spending laws from 2004 through 2013 blocked any rule making dealers physically count the guns in stock. Section 4 strikes them, so the ATF could require those counts.
Today the ATF must show a dealer broke gun rules on purpose. Sections 12 and 14 lower that to knowingly breaking them. It covers new applications and taking a license away.
Spending laws from 2013 to 2023 stopped the ATF from blocking imports of collector guns, surplus military guns, and some shotguns. Sections 7 and 10 repeal those limits.
Spending laws barred the ATF from turning down a license application just because the applicant does little business. Section 8 removes that shield from seven yearly acts.
A dealer who loses a license can now ask a judge to weigh the case from scratch and hear new proof. Section 13 limits the judge to the evidence the ATF already saw.
Transparency & Accountability
Trace data shows the dealer and first buyer of a gun found at a crime scene. Riders known as the Tiahrt Amendments limited who could see it. Section 2 strikes them from six yearly spending laws.
A 2013 law bars using gun trace data to draw broad conclusions about gun crime. Section 2 repeals it, so researchers and officials could study the data.
A 2003 law blocks the government from spending money to answer Freedom of Information Act requests about arson, explosives, or gun traces. Section 6 repeals it.
More about this bill
If you buy a gun from a licensed dealer, the record of your background check could be kept longer. Today the FBI must destroy that record within 24 hours. The AIM Act would end the 24-hour rule. It would also lift a ban on the Justice Department pooling dealers' sales records into one system. Agents could search the files of closed gun shops by a buyer's name. Those searches are blocked today. Licensed gun dealers would face closer watch. The ATF, the federal gun agency, could check a dealer's records more than once a year. It could also order dealers to count the guns in their stock. Losing a license would get easier. The bill drops the standard from a willful violation to a knowing one. A dealer fighting a denial would lose the right to a fresh look in court. New evidence could no longer be added. The ATF could also turn down more gun imports, including some collector guns and shotguns. Gun trace data would open up. Trace data shows where a gun found at a crime scene came from. Yearly spending laws going back to 2003 have kept most of it from the public. Those laws also barred using it to draw broad conclusions about gun crime. All of that would end. People could again file public records requests about gun traces, arson, and explosives cases. None of these changes wait for a future date. Each would start when the bill became law.
Congressional Summary
ATF Improvement and Modernization Act of 2025 or the AIM Act This bill removes limitations on the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to conduct activities related to the administration of federal firearms laws. Specifically, the bill removes provisions that limit the use of firearms tracing data; prohibit consolidating or centralizing records maintained by federal firearm licensees, or FFLs (e.g., gun dealers); prohibit imposing a requirement that gun dealers conduct a physical inventory; require background check records to be destroyed within 24 hours; limit the disclosure of data under the Freedom of Information Act; prohibit the ATF from altering the definition of or denying certain import applications for a curio or relic firearm; prohibit the denial of a federal firearms license due to lack of business activity; prohibit the electronic retrieval of information gathered from firearm transaction records of FFLs that go out of business; prohibit the ATF from denying an application to import certain shotguns; and limit the number of annual compliance inspections. Additionally, the bill lowers the standard for denying or revoking a federal firearms license due to violations of federal firearms laws by requiring only a knowing violation rather than a willful violation, and removes the requirement that an appeal of a denial or revocation of a federal firearms license shall be subject to the de novo standard of judicial review (i.e., without deference to the agency determination).
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-11-19
- Date Added
- 2026-07-02
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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