Gun Owners of America formally asked the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General to investigate the ATF and DOJ's Civil Division after government lawyers twice filed sensitive National Firearms Act registration records and tax information belonging to a GOA member on a publicly accessible federal court docket. Bearing Arms reported the OIG request on April 20; Gun Owners of America published the formal letter on April 18.

The disclosure occurred during ongoing litigation in Silencer Shop Foundation v. BATFE, a civil challenge to ATF processing and registration practices for NFA-regulated items. According to the letter signed by GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt, DOJ attorneys filed documents on the public docket that included the member's NFA tax returns alongside an ATF declaration itemizing the exact count of NFA-regulated items in the individual's possession. The filings left the member's name, city, and state unredacted — placing a detailed inventory of a private gun owner's NFA collection on a publicly searchable court record accessible to anyone through PACER.

After GOA alerted the government to the exposure, DOJ refiled substantially the same sensitive information a second time. Pratt's letter cites 26 U.S.C. § 6103, the federal statute that specifically prohibits public disclosure of NFA registration forms and associated tax records, and argues the repeated disclosure after explicit notification points to a systemic failure rather than an isolated clerical error. GOA also invoked the Tiahrt Amendments — the longstanding congressional appropriations riders that restrict the ATF from releasing firearms-tracing data and owner registration records in any form accessible to the general public.

The OIG letter requests that the inspector general address three specific questions: whether the disclosures violate federal statutes, regulations, or agency policy; what warnings, if any, the ATF provided to DOJ Civil Division attorneys regarding the sensitivity of NFA data before the filings were made; and what new procedures will be implemented to prevent future exposures of gun owner registry data. Gun.net first published the GOA letter on April 18, two days before Bearing Arms covered it.

The NFA registry holds identifying information and detailed item counts for lawful owners of silencers, short-barreled rifles, machine guns, and other regulated devices. Gun rights organizations have long argued that the registry should never appear in public records, on the grounds that exposure could be used to target collectors or facilitate theft. According to American Rifleman, background checks for NFA items climbed sharply in early 2026, meaning the registry has grown considerably — and the stakes around protecting that data have grown with it.

The DOJ OIG has not confirmed whether it will open a formal review. GOA says it will continue pressing for a response, treating the incident as a test of whether the current administration's stated commitment to protecting gun owner privacy extends to the ATF's own litigation conduct. The Silencer Shop Foundation case continues on a separate track in federal court, independent of any OIG proceeding.