Biden Gun Grab: Hundreds of Firearms Dealers Lose Licenses in Admin Crackdown That Law Enforcement Says Will Backfire
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is escalating efforts to strip gun dealers of their federal firearms licenses.
The licenses, which enable businesses to sell firearms for profit, are being revoked in increasing numbers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The ATF has yanked 122 federal firearms licenses, or FFL’s, from dealers this fiscal year alone.
That’s up from 90 in all of fiscal year 2022, and merely 27 in fiscal year 2021.
The strict enforcement has proved controversial among law enforcement — with some police opposing action that could deter gun sellers from working with federal authorities to thwart crime, according to the Wall Street Journal.
ATF Director Steve Dettelbach is defending the agency’s actions, arguing that the dealers in question don’t deserve the “privilege” of transaction in firearms.
“We’ve taken steps to hold accountable those few dealers who are engaging in these willful violations,” he said. “They’re not going to have the privilege of being a gun dealer anymore.”
ATF posted the results of FFL compliance inspections involving violations of the @TheJusticeDept Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement. The data posted involves ATF inspections between July 2021 and December 2022. Read more at https://t.co/NrP6lVQOxy. #ATF pic.twitter.com/Cl3v4gUAOR
— ATF HQ (@ATFHQ) March 29, 2023
One retired ATF official is warning the heavy-handed approach will deprive the agency of key allies against gun trafficking and illegal straw purchases of guns.
“The gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking,” retired deputy assistant director Peter Forcelli told the Journal of his experience with the agency.
“Why are we now beating an ally into submission?”
The ATF considers five violations of firearms law as worthy of instant FFL revocation, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
These include offenses such as refusing to permit an ATF inspection or selling a firearm to a prohibited person, such as a drug addict or felon.
The Biden administration is eyeing new regulatory powers that would redefine who is required to possess an FFL to sell guns — a move that could clamp down on nearly all private gun sales.
The rule, reportedly planned for early 2024, would require anyone engaged in the sale of firearms for profit to have an FFL.
This would alter the existing understanding of American firearms law, in which anyone engaged in the sale of firearms as their principal means of living needs the license.
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