WASHINGTON – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety applauded Senator Durbin for introducing the Federal Firearm Licensee Act (FFLA) in the Senate. The bill would bring firearm dealer laws into the 21st century by modernizing and strengthening the federal requirements for gun shops. That includes requiring “facilitators” — third parties who host commercial marketplaces where guns are sold, such as gun shows or websites — to ensure that background checks are run on sales, increasing physical security requirements at gun shops, like video surveillance, modernizing record keeping, and requiring dealers to inform ATF of any firearm transferred before a background check has been completed. It will also give law enforcement critical tools to help solve crimes, disrupt firearms trafficking, and hold dealers who violate the law accountable. Representative Robin Kelly introduced the House companion of the FFLA last year.
“Right now, ATF is fighting rogue gun dealers with one hand tied behind its back — which is just how the gun lobby designed it,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This bill would give ATF the tools it needs to hold rogue gun dealers accountable for putting profits ahead of public safety, and we applaud Senator Durbin for introducing it in the Senate.”
“Requiring gun dealers to meet basic, modern safety requirements shouldn’t be a stretch — it’s a necessity to keep our communities safe,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “This bill outlines essential measures to ensure gun shops uphold a higher standard of responsibility. We applaud Senator Durbin for standing up to the gun lobby and encourage his colleagues in the Senate to follow his lead in protecting our communities.”
The bill would also:
- Prevent gun trafficking, loss, and theft.
- Tens of thousands of guns slip through the cracks of the legal market each year due to trafficking, loss, and theft, and end up in the hands of prohibited persons and used in crime.
- The FFLA would ensure that Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) do their part to reduce the risk that guns are trafficked, lost, or stolen from their business inventories by requiring them to conduct quarterly physical checks of their inventories and report any lost, stolen, or unaccounted firearms to ATF and local law enforcement.
- Increase industry oversight and accountability.
- The FFLA would help give ATF the support to conduct the robust oversight that the firearms industry has long deserved.
- It would authorize ATF to hire investigators and other personnel and require ATF to inspect high-risk dealers — those who have reported lost or stolen firearms, been issued a report of a violation, received a warning letter, or been the subject of a warning conference, or to whom multiple crime guns were traced — on an annual basis.
- Strengthen the background check system.
- The FFLA would require individuals who purchase guns sold by unlicensed sellers in commercial marketplaces to go through a background check.
