ATF Revoking More Firearms Dealers Licenses Under Biden

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, under President Joe Biden, has revoked more than 100 firearms dealers’ licenses this fiscal year while enforcing federal laws, angering many in the gun industry and sparking disagreement in the law-enforcement community. 

The agency has revoked the licenses of 122 gun dealers this fiscal year, beginning last October, up from 90 for all of the last fiscal year and 27 in fiscal 2021, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Some law enforcement veterans say the revocations are a welcome change, but others say the increased actions risk alienating gun dealers, some of whom they consider valuable resources in fighting gun violence. 

In the past, firearms dealers got only warnings on legal violations, and under former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama no more than 81 dealers’ licenses a year were revoked, dating back to 2013, the earliest year for which data is available. 

ATF Director Steve Dettelbach said the push is coming only because the administration wants to enforce the law. 

“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.”

If dealers don’t follow the rules, criminals and other people who should not have guns end up getting them, Dettlebach said. Gun store owners, however, say they’re being punished over paperwork errors. 

“We were making $1 million a year, now it’s less than $100,000,” store Anthony Navarro, who last year lost his license to sell firearm accessories at his Greeley, Colo., store. 

He’s gotten three warnings since 2009, and commented that the Biden administration’s policy is “designed to be a backdoor violation of the Second Amendment.”

About 800 people are employed by the ATF to inspect more than 50,000 licensed dealers nationally, and in the past the agency used a light touch because it depended on sellers as their “first line of defense against gun trafficking,” said Peter Forcelli, a retired AFT deputy assistant director. “Why are we now beating an ally into submission?”

But other former officials said the soft treatment caused dealers to not bother following federal rules. 

The tougher approach comes after a push by Brady, an organization that pushes for stricter gun control rules, and other groups to target rogue gun dealers. 

“We could see regularly that recommendations for revocation were being downgraded and then these same stores would be inspected again for even at times even more than a decade,” said Christian Heyne, vice president of policy and programs at Brady.

His organization compiled about 80,000 pages of inspection ATF reports from recent years, including one that said an agency inspector recommended revoking Navarro’s license in 2015, after sending him warning lessons for his shop in 2009 and 2011. The 2015 inspection revealed 10 violations, including that the shop was selling guns to people who were prohibited from owning them based on background checks. 

That recommendation was overturned by an ATV supervisor who said Navarro should get a warning instead.  

Navarro said customers had made mistakes filling out their background checks, but were not prohibited from buying guns. 

Meanwhile, Bridge City Ordnance in North Dakota has filed a lawsuit against ATF, saying the agency is being “wielded as a political weapon,” as ATF inspectors recommended revoking its license after the shop sued the agency over an unrelated matter.