PHOENIX — Following a statewide Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day at the Arizona State Capitol, volunteers with the Arizona chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action today called on lawmakers to advance HB 2570, a comprehensive anti-gun trafficking bill designed to stop the flow of illegal guns fueling violence across Arizona communities. HB 2570 is sponsored by Rep. Aaron Márquez. A companion Senate bill is forthcoming from Sen. Flavio Bravo.
During the advocacy day, volunteers, students, survivors, and community members met with lawmakers and rallied at the Capitol to demand action to address Arizona’s gun violence crisis, which claims the lives of 1,383 people every year and wounds another 2,125, making firearms the second leading cause of death for Arizona children and teens.
“Gun violence in Arizona is not random, it’s being driven by a broken supply chain that allows guns to move quickly and predictably from legal sales into criminal hands,” said Lora Newton, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action in Arizona. “HB 2570 cuts off that pipeline by holding reckless gun sellers accountable, closing dangerous loopholes, and giving law enforcement the tools they need to stop gun trafficking before lives are lost.”
HB 2570 targets gun trafficking at its source by strengthening oversight of gun dealers, closing the private-sale loophole, and building modern crime-gun intelligence systems to help law enforcement disrupt illegal gun pipelines. The bill establishes gold-standard dealer accountability requirements, including secure firearm storage, digitized sales records, employee background checks, and stronger enforcement tools to shut down repeat offenders who endanger public safety.
The legislation also requires background checks on all gun transfers, closing a loophole that allows guns to be sold privately without a check, and builds a state-level crime-gun tracing and ballistics system to help identify the small number of traffickers and sellers driving most of the harm. In addition, HB 2570 limits bulk firearm purchases and creates a state-level gun trafficking crime to better deter organized trafficking networks.
In 2023, 84% of crime guns recovered and successfully traced in Arizona were originally sold by Arizona gun dealers, making in-state sales the single largest source of crime guns used in the state. Arizona’s weak oversight doesn’t just endanger local communities, in the same year, California recovered more than 4,000 guns originally sold in Arizona.
“Every shooting has a supply chain behind it. Guns don’t just appear at crime scenes,” said Nihar Bhave, a volunteer leader with Students Demand Action in Arizona. “HB 2570 is about prevention. By disrupting trafficking and reckless sales, we can stop shootings before they happen and keep our schools and communities safer.”
Advocates emphasized that HB 2570 does not target lawful gun ownership, but instead focuses on the small number of bad actors who exploit weak laws to flood communities with illegal guns. Responsible gun owners and responsible dealers already follow these rules — the bill simply ensures accountability for those who don’t.