3,300
Pennsylvania had nearly 3,300 gun dealers who sold a total of 843,484 firearms.
And The Need for State-Based Gun Dealer Inspections
Gun dealers act as gatekeepers to those looking to obtain firearms.
They have a responsibility to ensure that guns aren’t transferred to individuals prohibited from possessing firearms or at risk of harming themselves or others, and they play a critical role in preventing guns from being diverted to the illegal market.
Gun dealers acting irresponsibly or negligently are a leading cause of gun violence, and yet they are subject to little to no oversight. In Pennsylvania, we can clearly see the consequences of that inaction.
The vast majority of guns used in crimes in Pennsylvania originate from the state’s own gun dealers. With lack of gun dealer oversight, businesses aren’t deterred from operating recklessly. It’s time for this to change and for the gun industry to be treated like other industries where inspections improve public health and safety. Pennsylvania law enforcement and lawmakers have a responsibility to the communities they serve to ensure that only law-abiding, responsible people are selling guns.
In 2023,
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17,000+
Law enforcement recovered 17,027 guns from crimes in the state — more than three-quarters came from gun dealers within the state.
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<2%
Less than 2% of Pennsylvania gun dealers were identified as selling a significant number of guns recovered in crimes
Download the Report from Brady and CeasefirePA
Who is supplying the guns being used in Pennsylvania crimes?
While there are licensed gun dealers in every county in Pennsylvania, in 2023, dealers in just five counties supplied one-fourth of all the guns sold in the state. Yet, the cities where the most guns were recovered from crimes, except for Pittsburgh, are not located in the counties with the most gun dealers.
Over three-fourths of guns recovered from Pennsylvania crimes in 2023 were traced to gun dealers in Pennsylvania, and half of the traced guns were first purchased less than three years before recovery — a strong indicator that they were trafficked.
Pennsylvania Counties With Most Gun Dealers, 2023
| County | Total Dealers | Total Firearm Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Allegheny | 130 | 56,789 |
| Bucks | 112 | 53,916 |
| Lancaster | 68 | 42,434 |
| Berks | 97 | 33,893 |
| York | 136 | 29,892 |
Pennsylvania Cities With Most Crime Gun Recoveries, 2023
| City | County | # of Guns Recovered | Population Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | Philadelphia | 6,316 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh | Allegheny | 1,314 | 2 |
| Harrisburg | Dauphin | 433 | 9 |
| Altoona | Blair | 353 | 12 |
| Erie | Erie | 300 | 5 |
Since 2021, the ATF has identified 61 dealers in Pennsylvania as selling a significant number of guns recovered in crimes — that’s just 2.2% of the dealers in the state, and most of them are located in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia metro areas.
Pennsylvania's Gun Tracing Analytics Platform, which has since been taken offline, showed that of crime guns recovered in the state from 2018-2020, 60% were sold by Pennsylvania dealers. And during this time, only 1.2% of Pennsylvania crime gun dealers sourced 57% of the recovered crime guns, showing that only a few dealers supply the majority of guns recovered from crimes in the state.
Pennsylvania Gun Trace Data
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total traces | 10,133 | 10,451 | 9,625 |
| Traces to PA dealers | 5,940 (58.6%) | 6,322 (60.5%) | 5,865 (60.9%) |
| Traces to PA dealers active as of 2022 | 5,721 (56.5%) | 3,978 (38.1%) | 3,534 (36.7%) |
Pennsylvania Counties Supplying the Most Crime Guns
| County | % of PA crime guns traced to county’s dealers |
|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 24.3% |
| Allegheny | 11.8% |
| Delaware | 8.2% |
| Montgomery | 5.9% |
| Bucks | 4.9% |
The largest database of ATF gun store inspection reports ever released to the public.
THE GUN STORE TRANSPARENCY PROJECT
Enter a zip code and find gun stores that have been cited for breaking the law, and see dealers who have sold a significant number of guns later recovered in crimes.
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The Suppliers of America's Gun Violence Epidemic
To better understand how guns make their way from the legal market to being used in crime, Brady obtained access to the list of licensed gun dealers in ATF's Demand Letter 2 (DL2) program, which identifies firearms dealers that sell the most crime guns.
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Uncovering the Truth About Pennsylvania Crime Guns
Brady has used Pennsylvania's Gun Tracing Analytics Platform and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) listing of federal firearm licensees to uncover trends in crime gun trace data — finding that a small number of gun dealers in Pennsylvania appear to be responsible for a large portion of the crime guns recovered by law enforcement in the state.
In 2023, Pennsylvania’s gun dealers were a major source of guns recovered from crimes in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland.
What types of behaviors impact the number of crime guns a gun dealer supplies?
The gun industry attributes a dealer’s connection to a large number of crime guns to be a cost of success when dealers sell large quantities of firearms. But the ATF and other research have concluded that sales volume alone does not account for the disproportionately large number of traces associated with a small number of dealers.
Gun dealers who facilitate the diversion of guns to the illegal market often ignore red flags such as
- Multiple or bulk purchases of guns
- The purchase of similar or identical firearms, particularly in the same transaction or within a short amount of time
- A passive buyer, accompanied by one or more people who seem more interested in purchasing firearms
- Paying in cash
- Paying with a bank card in a name that does not match the buyer’s
How can Pennsylvania address problematic gun dealers?
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State and Local Inspections
In order to stop the flow of guns to people who commit crimes, Pennsylvania state and local law enforcement must fill the oversight gap left by the ATF and routinely inspect gun dealers to ensure they are complying with the law. Pennsylvania law allows such inspections to be conducted by state and local law enforcement and when dealers violate the law, it is critical that law enforcement issue appropriate citations and revoke licenses when justified — just as they do for many other industries.
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Creating Accountability Standards
States with stronger laws regulating gun dealers have lower rates of guns flowing from the legal to illegal marketplace. Pennsylvania can strengthen the laws that govern the state’s gun dealers to include proper vetting, background checks, and training of employees; robust security system requirements including secure storage of weapons and audio/video surveillance systems; recordkeeping and retention improvements; and liability insurance. Pennsylvania law currently allows for the revocation of licenses, but must also add options to fine and suspend licenses. Most importantly, the state needs to uniformly enforce responsible business standards.
Why do gun dealers lack oversight?
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the only federal agency with oversight of the gun industry. The ATF is severely under-resourced and ill-equipped to perform effective oversight on the country’s 70,000+ licensed gun dealers. The ATF states that it has a goal of inspecting each gun dealer every three years, however, at their current rate, ATF is on track to inspect Pennsylvania dealers only once every 17 years. This rate is expected to slow even further if the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the agency are carried out.
Combating Crime Guns
Our Combating Crime Guns program works to shift the burden of gun violence prevention efforts from the communities most impacted by gun violence to the suppliers of crime guns, including irresponsible gun industry businesses that prioritize profits over public safety.
