# The TRACE Act: What It Does to Track and Control Firearms

The TRACE Act is designed to make it harder for guns to disappear into the illegal market and easier for law enforcement to track firearms that do. It does this through four main changes to how firearms are manufactured, sold, and tracked.

The first major change requires all newly manufactured guns to have a second, hidden serial number in addition to the visible one. This hidden number would either be etched inside the gun's receiver (the main metal part that holds everything together) or only visible under infrared light. The idea is that if criminals try to file off or alter the visible serial number to hide a gun's origin, law enforcement would still have the hidden number to trace where the gun came from. Manufacturers would have one year to start implementing this requirement.

The bill also expands what counts as a "firearm" under federal law to include unfinished frames and receivers—basically gun parts that are almost ready to be assembled into a working gun. This closes a loophole where people could buy partially completed gun kits or 3D-printed frames without going through the normal background check process. The bill clarifies that assembling a gun from these unfinished parts counts as manufacturing and requires proper licensing and serial numbers.

Two other changes focus on record-keeping and oversight. Background check records would now be kept for 180 days instead of being destroyed immediately, giving investigators a longer window to spot suspicious purchasing patterns or trace guns used in crimes. Additionally, licensed gun dealers would be required to physically count and verify their inventory periodically, making it easier to catch when guns go missing from stores—a common source of illegal firearms.