The ATF is not easing up on its efforts to diminish the Second Amendment, and one way the agency is doing that is by targeting Federal Firearms Licensees for minor infractions.
In 2024, the ATF has revoked an alarming number of gun store licenses. According to anti-gun site The Trace, the number of Federal Firearms License (FFL) revocations this year was the highest since 2005 (per ATF figures published on October 4).
This should come as no surprise, because the goal of the Biden Administration has been to implement a zero-tolerance policy against firearm dealers. In the fiscal year 2024, ATF investigators revoked 195 licenses, roughly a 13% increase from the 2023 total of 173. This figure represents more than 2% of all licenses inspected.
ATF spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua admitted that the agency has bolstered its inspections program. They are currently using an analytics tool to direct resources toward targeting gun dealers who allegedly pose a higher risk to public safety. She claimed the changes have “increased the effectiveness of compliance inspections” in the last three years.
The ATF’s inspections division is tasked with making sure that gun stores follow federal gun control laws. If a violation is discovered, the inspector can enforce penalties ranging from warnings in writing to revoking a store’s license to sell firearms.
According to The Trace, the ATF revoked three times as many FFLs in fiscal year 2022 as 2021, even though a comparable number of stores were inspected.
While the administration’s zero-tolerance policy is supposedly geared toward “rogue gun dealers,” it really targets small gun stores guilty of nothing more than minor paperwork errors.
Perhaps a new administration can eliminate these overzealous enforcement efforts.
