NEW REPORT: Policy Ended by Trump Shuttered Dangerous Gun Dealers

WASHINGTON — Today, The Smoking Gun — an Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund resource dedicated to exposing the gun industry’s role in our gun violence epidemic — released a new report highlighting the effectiveness of the “zero tolerance” policy, which was repealed by the Department of Justice earlier this week despite shuttering dangerous gun dealers.

First announced in June 2021, the “zero tolerance” policy tasked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) with revoking the licenses of gun dealers who willfully violate federal law, including by transferring a firearm to a prohibited person, failing to run a required background check, falsifying records, failing to respond to an ATF crime gun tracing request, or refusing to permit the ATF to conduct an inspection.

“The Trump administration’s decision to repeal the ‘zero tolerance’ policy is a win for the gun industry — one that will undoubtedly result in more guns in dangerous hands,” said Nick Suplina, SVP of Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. “This policy helped shut down gun dealers who facilitated gun trafficking, allowed guns to fall into the wrong hands, and made it harder for ATF to trace crime guns. Without this kind of accountability for gun dealers, our communities and law enforcement are put at risk.”

Read the full report here.

Key Points

• While the ATF is tasked with inspecting gun manufacturers, importers, and dealers — or Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) — to ensure that they are properly maintaining records and legally conducting gun sales, the chronically under-resourced agency inspected just 5.1 and 6.6 percent of all FFLs in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, respectively. 
  • In other words, gun dealers might go years without seeing an inspection.

• ATF data indicates that the agency successfully inspected more FFLs over the course of the “zero tolerance” policy.
  • By the end of 2024, the monthly average had increased to 768 inspections, an 82-percent increase compared to the end of 2021.

• The most striking finding from the ATF data: After the “zero tolerance” policy was implemented, the number of inspections where the ATF found qualifying violations — or those warranting license revocation — dramatically increased.
  • Under the policy, over 1,000 FFLs were found with qualifying violations, and 642 either had their licenses revoked or voluntarily surrendered them.
  • Compared to the preceding decade, the average monthly rate of license revocations nearly doubled.

• Despite gun lobby claims that the policy shuttered gun stores for “minor clerical errors,” revocation documents reveal that many FFLs repeatedly failed to record gun sales or run background checks, and facilitated straw purchases. Of the inspections for which the ATF disclosed the specific violations found, roughly two-thirds had repeat violations as well

• The Trump administration’s decision to rescind the “zero tolerance” policy will make it harder for ATF to carry out its law enforcement mission, and sends a message that the gun industry’s profits are more important than public safety.
  • The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which adamantly opposed the policy since it was first announced, took credit for getting the Trump administration to end it.