Trace a firearm
Submit the firearm's make, model, type and serial number. If this platform recorded a transfer of that firearm, the selling FFL who holds the records is returned with your reference number.
What a match returns
Whether this platform recorded a transfer of that firearm, and the selling FFL who holds the records — including the ATF Form 4473 — for a request under your legal process.
What it never returns
Buyer identity, and the recordings themselves. Records requests go to the FFL named on the match; the platform does not compile a searchable buyer database.
Recordings are kept
A matched inquiry places a legal hold on the order, so its meeting recordings survive the 90-day retention window while the request stands.
Every inquiry is logged
Matched and unmatched inquiries are both written to the log with the agency, case number and requester, and the FFL is shown the request on their order.
Meeting recordings are destroyed 90 days after the order is completed or cancelled, unless an official request (ATF e-Trace, subpoena or court order) is logged against the order. This portal cannot verify that a requester is law enforcement: a match keeps the order's recordings and shows the request to the FFL and to platform staff, who can release a request that does not rest on real legal process. For anything beyond the FFL's contact record — the Form 4473, the firearm, the parties — direct your legal process to the FFL named above.