Obama says bipartisan background check plan “outlawed any (gun) registry”

President Barack Obama accused the "gun lobby and its allies" of lying about a bipartisan background check proposal that failed Wednesday in the Senate.

From the Rose Garden, he charged:

"They claimed that it would create some sort of ‘big brother’ gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite. This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry. Plain and simple, right there in the text. But that didn't matter."

The background check amendment, sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was a compromise intended to replace stricter language in Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013.

Did it, in fact, outlaw any gun registry?

‘A path to a national gun registry’

The government requires background checks for gun sales by licensed firearms dealers — but not for sales between folks who aren’t in the business of selling guns.

Manchin and Toomey’s amendment expanded the background check requirement to sales at gun shows and those advertised in publications and on the Web. But it didn’t go as far as the original bill, which required background checks for all gun transfers with limited exceptions.

That compromise wasn’t enough to attract the 60-vote supermajority required to pass the amendment. It failed on a 54 to 46 vote.

Opponents had, indeed, raised the specter of a national gun registry.

"If your private gun transaction is covered by Toomey-Schumer-Manchin (and virtually all will be) ... you can assume you will be part of a national gun registry," wrote Michael Hammond of lobbying group Gun Owners of America.

The existing background checks require filling out ATF Form 4473. That personal information is then run through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The government is supposed to destroy personally identifying information, but gun dealers are required to store the forms.

The government is then allowed to inspect them in the course of criminal investigations or to ensure gun dealers keep the records they’re supposed to keep.

So what did the Manchin-Toomey amendment say about a registry?

Featured Fact-check

Donald Trump

stated on March 22, 2024 in a Truth Social post

The New York civil fraud judgment against Trump and a plan to seize Trump-owned property “is simply a 'taking.' Much like what is done in communist countries."

First, it made reference to federal law that already bans creation of a federal registry.

Since the mid 1980s, it’s been against federal law for information from background checks to be "recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established."

That’s why, if you’re cleared to purchase a gun, the FBI is required to destroy all identifying information about you before the next business day.

The Manchin-Toomey amendment doubled down on this ban, declaring: "Congress supports and reaffirms the existing prohibition on a national firearms registry."

It also declared that nothing in the legislation should be construed to "allow the establishment, directly or indirectly, of a federal firearms registry."

Later, it added these provisions:

• "The Attorney General shall be prohibited from seizing any records or other documents in the course of an inspection or examination authorized by this paragraph other than those records or documents constituting material evidence of a violation of law."

• "The Attorney General may not consolidate or centralize the records of the ... acquisition or disposition of firearms, or any portion thereof."

• "Any person who knowingly violates (the prohibition against consolidating or centralizing records) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.''

So, the amendment prohibited the centralizing of federal records — and added the threat of prison.

But those protections didn’t reassure gun rights proponents.

The National Rifle Association argues that gun control supporters believe expanding background checks is a precursor to gun confiscation. An Arizona gun group spokesman told us the federal government would illegally collect background check information submitted to the FBI. Sarah Palin, arguing against the Toomey-Manchin amendment, said it "creates a path to a national gun registry" since dealers store background check forms and the bill didn’t explicitly ban copying them, storing them in various locations (rather than centrally), or keeping a list of them.

She didn’t mention that existing federal law — referenced by the bill — already prohibits "any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions."

Our ruling

Obama said opponents of compromise gun legislation "claimed that it would create some sort of ‘big brother’ gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite. This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry. Plain and simple, right there in the text." The Manchin-Toomey amendment referenced a registry ban already in federal law, then expanded it, prohibiting seizure of records, forbidding the attorney general from consolidating or centralizing records, and providing for fines and imprisonment for anyone who did consolidate or centralize records. We rate Obama’s claim True.