Brady Releases 2,000+ Reports of Gun Stores Cited for Violating Federal Law, Enhances GunStoreTransparency.org

The updates to GunStoreTransparency.org, which is the largest searchable database of federal gun store inspection records, include an option to identify inspection reports linked to the nation’s top crime gun sellers

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2026 — Today, Brady added over 2,000 records of gun businesses cited by ATF for violating the law to the award-winning GunStoreTransparency.org, the most comprehensive public database of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) gun store inspection reports. A new feature also allows for filtering of gun stores placed into ATF’s Demand Letter 2 (DL2) Program, which identifies firearm dealers that have supplied large quantities of firearms recovered by law enforcement in connection to crime. All DL2 letters issued in 2022, 2023, and 2024 for the over 1,700 dealers in the program were obtained by Brady via public records requests and made available in an easily searchable format under “Review DL2 Dealers."

This release of never-before-released records builds on the analysis published last year by Brady that found dealers who sell the most guns that are used in crime rarely face repercussions, instead continuing to stay in business and supply the criminal market. Brady found that two-thirds of dealers who were placed in 2024 into the DL2 program, a program vital to helping law enforcement solve gun crime, also had supplied enough crime guns recovered in 2022 and 2023 to qualify for the program. Further, our analysis found that as states weaken laws on gun sales, the number of DL2 dealers in the state increases. 

“Despite proclamations otherwise, ATF is not entering a ‘new era’ of transparency under the Trump administration; in fact, one of the administration’s first actions at ATF in January 2025 was to remove nearly 100 inspection reports online of dealers whose licenses were revoked because of their inability to follow the law,” said Kris Brown, President of Brady. “In contrast, Brady’s data release today is designed to shine light on the irresponsible gun stores across the country that are making communities less safe. However, our work is being directly threatened by the Trump administration’s slashing of inspectors who make sure dealers follow the law and divertingATF resources to Trump’s mass deportation effort.”

“Public access to information about how gun dealers and businesses are following — or not following — public safety laws improves gun industry accountability and saves lives,” said Ravi Ramanathan, a partner at Platkin LLP and previously the inaugural Director of the Statewide Affirmative Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Office within the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Ramanathan led the nation’s first state-level civil enforcement program targeting firearms industry misconduct, and under his leadership, SAFE brought more affirmative lawsuits against gun industry members than any other attorney general’s office in the country. “Having access to this information helped the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office improve public safety and maintain some of the lowest levels of gun violence in the country. I thank Brady for bringing much needed transparency to this space, and I encourage other Attorney General's offices and public officials to visit the site as they work to protect their own communities.”

Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project, which was launched first in 2021 and includes data as far back as 2015, now hosts: 

• Over 6,100 inspection reports; 
• 393 reports on dealers that supplied a minimum of 23,375 guns recovered in crimes from 2020 to 2023 shortly after purchase, and;
• 102 inspection reports of dealers whose licenses were later revoked or surrendered under the the Biden-Harris administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy.

Visitors can visually explore this data, viewing dealers and documents by geographic location, by common major concerns detected in the inspection, and by year. 

“Brady’s ongoing, years-long Gun Store Transparency Project cuts through the gun lobby’s strategic obfuscation – exposing to the public, including lawmakers and journalists alike, which gun dealers in their regions are cited for violating federal law. The public owns and has a right to this information, so Brady fought in court for these records and made them easily accessible through our database,” said Josh Scharff, General Counsel and Senior Director of Programs for Brady. “To help solve America’s gun violence crisis, we need to enforce the laws we already have on the books, demand improved inspection and accountability, and penalize the dealers and industry actors that prioritize profits over people’s lives and public safety."

“We continue to call for federal, state, and local policymakers and public safety practitioners to use this tool to pursue supply-side solutions to gun trafficking — solutions such as industry inspections and oversight, firearms procurement reform, and litigation. And we urge researchers and journalists to study these reports and other data to identify how firearms are diverted to the illegal market and then into our communities,” concluded Brown.