The Biden administration has rescinded the licenses of hundreds of gun dealers in a crackdown on an industry that law enforcement has previously seen as a key ally.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has revoked the licenses of 122 gun dealers so far this fiscal year on top of the 90 licenses it pulled last year. Since 2013, the earliest year for which data is available, the previous record for licenses revoked in a single year was 81. The agency pulled just 27 licenses in fiscal year 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The ATF has previously hesitated before pulling a dealer’s license. Gun sellers are helpful to law enforcement in identifying suspicious customers and aiding in investigations into illegal gun selling. The ATF has typically chosen to issue warnings instead of full license revocation.
“The gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking,” retired ATF deputy assistant director Peter Forcelli told WSJ. “Why…
