Gun dealers are crying foul as the Biden administration pursues an apparent crackdown on legal firearms sellers, whose licenses have been revoked at an unprecedented rate over the last two years.
“This policy is designed to be a backdoor violation of the Second Amendment,” Anthony Navarro, a Greeley, Colorado, dealer who lost his license last year, told the Wall Street Journal.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has taken away the licenses of 122 gun dealers since October — up from just 27 revocations in all of fiscal year 2021, a 350% increase in the first nine months of this fiscal year alone.
Dealers complain that many of the violations leading to the loss of their businesses amount to little more than paperwork errors.
Navarro, for example, said he informed the ATF immediately when he found that a lax employee had been mishandling buyers’ purchase documents — and lost his license as a result.
Leslie Gifford of Burkington, Kansas, who legally sold guns as a sideline for more than 30 years, had his license pulled for selling a firearm to a concealed carry holder from Nebraska, who should have been shopping in his own home state.
“Mr. Biden wants to get rid of all of us little dealers,” Gifford said.
In a recently filed lawsuit, North Dakota gun store Bridge City Ordnance alleged that the ATF’s newly strict inspection policy is being “wielded as a political weapon.” “
But the Biden administration’s approach could backfire — as gun dealers threaten to stop informing federal authorities about suspicious buyers in retaliation.
“The gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking,” said Peter Forcelli, a retired ATF deputy assistant director. “Why are we now beating an ally into submission?”
Gun control advocates cheered the clampdown.
“We’ve taken steps to hold accountable those few dealers who are engaging in these willful violations,” ATF Director Steve Dettelbach said.
“They’re not going to have the privilege of being a gun dealer anymore.”
