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The Demand Letter 2 (DL2) program was created to identify firearms dealers that sell the most crime guns and to aid law enforcement investigations.
Understanding the source of America’s gun violence epidemic is essential to building effective solutions to prevent it. Due to laws passed at the behest of the gun industry that have shielded important information from public view, it has been nearly impossible to understand how, and from where, guns are funneled into the criminal market.
That's why, in an effort to better understand how guns make their way from the legal marketplace to ultimately being used in crime, Brady has used Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to gain access to the list of federal firearm dealers subject to the ATF's DL2 program.
In February 2024, Brady released a report detailing findings
from data secured from the ATF pertaining to the Demand Letter 2 program which puts firearm dealers on notice if a large quantity of firearms sold in their store are recovered by law enforcement in connection with a crime. It was the most comprehensive list of America's top dealers of crime guns made public in the last 20 years.
In June 2025, Brady released an updated analysis and revealed the gun dealers that supplied the most crime guns in 2023, identified by the ATF's 2024 Demand Letter 2 program. The 2024 data shows only 2% of eligible firearm dealers are part of the program, consistent with Brady’s findings from 2022-2023. Key findings also show that more than 825 of the 1,226 dealers were top crime gun suppliers from 2022-2024 and states with weak gun laws rank the highest in number of “high crime gun” dealers relative to population.
The ATF's Demand Letter 2 (DL2) program includes dealers that have exhibited behaviors considered by the ATF to be indicators of firearms trafficking.
Dealers in the program are required to submit information on used firearms that they acquire to assist the Bureau in more efficiently tracing recovered guns —information that other dealers are not required to submit.
Dealers in the program have:
Dealers in the Demand Letter 2 program
Consistent Findings from 2022-2024
If America is to reduce gun violence and gun trafficking, information on the sources of crime guns must be made public once again. Transparency is the only way that the public can accurately understand the sources of gun violence in their communities and allow policymakers to develop targeted strategies to reduce gun violence.
Repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which ATF interprets to block public access to most data on the paths of trafficked firearms and dealers who are top sources of crime guns
Interpret the Tiahrt Amendment’s restrictions more narrowly to allow for the release of aggregated data on top source dealers of crime guns in annual reports and in response to FOIA requests.
Publish more trace reports. Where state law allows, adopt a robust gun dealer inspection program to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local gun laws.
Implement responsible firearms procurement practices.
Study the associations between state and local gun safety laws and the number of DL2 dealers in those jurisdictions; and the effect any voluntary reforms adopted by a DL2 dealer has on their likelihood to continue to qualify for DL2s.
Adopt and implement voluntary reforms shown to reduce gun trafficking and violence, including, but not limited to, those outlined in Brady’s Gun Dealer Code of Conduct. Distributors, importers, and manufacturers— monitor distribution chains to ensure they are only selling guns to dealers that have adopted safe business practices and are not disproportionately supplying the criminal market.
Important terms to know
A gun that has been recovered by law enforcement after being used in a crime, that is suspected of being used in a crime, and/or that of which its possession itself is a crime.
Data that links a gun used in crime and recovered by law enforcement to the location of its first retail sale.
The length of time between the date of a firearm’s last known purchase to the date of its recovery in a crime.
Authored in 2003 at the gun industry’s behest, the Tiahrt Amendment aims to prohibit the use of federal funds to make raw trace data available to the public.
Explore data of all 1,520 unique dealers in the Demand Letter 2 program from 2022-2023.
Explore all Demand Letter 2s sent to federal firearm licensees in 2022.
Explore all Demand Letter 2s sent to federal firearm licensees in 2023.
Explore data of all 1,226 dealers in the Demand Letter 2 program from 2024.
