The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked more gun store licenses than in any year over at least the past two decades in 2024, according to agency figures published earlier this month. The numbers reflect a sustained and expanded crackdown on lawbreaking gun dealers since President Joe Biden imposed a zero tolerance policy three years ago for gun retailers who willfully violate any of five of the most serious federal firearms laws, including selling a gun without a background check and failing to keep accurate sales records, The Trace reports. Investigators revoked 195 licenses in fiscal year 2024, up from last year’s record-setting total of 173. The number represents more than 2 percent of all licenses inspected, making it the highest rate of revocation since 2005.
The ramped up enforcement comes at a time of historic federal spending on gun violence prevention and a steady decline in homicides to pre-pandemic levels. Yet the Biden administration’s targeting of gun retailers could prove one of the more consequential gun violence prevention strategies of the past 20 years, according to experts. “For many, many years law enforcement at the retailer level has been lax despite this being perhaps the best point of leverage to stop or slow gun crime,” said Topher McDougal, a University of San Diego economist who studies firearms trafficking. “I have to applaud the agency finally taking this responsibility seriously.”
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