Brady Condemns Trump's ATF Invitation to Shuttered Rogue Gun Dealers to Reapply for Revoked Licenses

In Trump’s latest round of deadly policies on guns, his ATF is courting gun sellers who lost their licenses under the Zero Tolerance policy to get back into business.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2025 — Today, Brady, the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention organization, responds to an apparent move by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)  to create a new pathway for irresponsible and dangerous gun sellers who lost their licenses because of willful violations of the law to get back into business. The new ATF webpage, published under the title “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” suggests a disturbing contravention of federal law at the cost to our safety from gun violence.

Annually, less than 1% of gun dealers have their licenses revoked. Under the recently rolled back "Zero-Tolerance" policy, revocations increased as a result of ATF's efforts to crack down on gun sellers with long track records of citations and those that commit serious violations. While the gun lobby has falsely argued that gun sellers are shut down due to minor clerical or paperwork mistakes, Brady has found that violations are more likely to include dangerous business practices such as selling guns without Brady Background Checks, arming violent criminals, and conducting straw sales.

Brady President Kris Brown said:

“Let’s be clear, gun dealers that seriously violate the law should not be allowed to sell guns to the public. It was disturbing enough that Trump recently rolled back ATF’s ‘Zero-Tolerance’ policy that held lawbreaking gun dealers  accountable for dangerous or nefarious business practices that fuel gun violence. But now the Administration is taking it a step further by inviting these dealers to apply to get back their licenses. This is unprecedented and dangerous. Gun stores with the most egregious violations, including those tied to gun trafficking and violent crime, could get back into the business of selling guns to the public. 

Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with ‘Protecting Second Amendment Rights,’ as the disturbing new ATF webpage claims, and everything to do with protecting gun industry profits. The Zero Tolerance policy never impacted law-abiding gun owners, only willfully law-breaking gun dealers.

Trump often uses rhetoric about ‘law and order’ and being ‘tough on crime,’ but his administration is restoring gun rights to criminal offenders, arming domestic abusers, and enabling irresponsible gun dealers to put guns back into our neighborhoods. The result will be more Americans shot and killed, and murder rates will undoubtedly soar, as they did during Trump’s first term.

Who benefits from the Trump DOJ’s dismantling of proven efforts to prevent gun violence? Not children. Not families. Not police. Not gun owners. Only rogue gun dealers, traffickers, and criminals.”