(Headline USA) President Joe Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has ramped up efforts to revoke the licenses of gun dealers this year in what appears to be a back-door effort to restrict access to guns.
The ATF has revoked the licenses of 122 gun dealers across the nation since October – a new record, according to the Wall Street Journal. From 2021-2022, the bureau revoked 90 licenses. From 2020-2021, it revoked just 27. And under the two previous presidential administrations, the number of revoked licenses never exceeded 81.
The crack down is part of BIden’s “zero tolerance” policy, which he announced in 2021. The guidance states ATF has “zero tolerance for willful violations that greatly affect public safety and ATF’s ability to trace firearms recovered in violent crimes.” The policy adds that “Revocation” of licenses for violations “is the assumed action.”
Anthony Navarro, a firearms dealer impacted by the revocation policy, said the ATF is essentially forcing him out of business.
“We were making $1 million a year, now it’s less than $100,000,” he said. “This policy is designed to be a backdoor violation of the Second Amendment.”
Navarro’s license was revoked last year over errors customers made on background check forms – errors that did not prohibit them from legally purchasing firearms, he said.
Another gun store in North Dakota said it lost its license, but said the ATF never explained which rules it violated. The store has since filed a lawsuit against the ATF, accusing the agency of being “wielded as a political weapon.”
Gun Owners of America slammed the policy as an attempt to “weaponize ATF’s bureaucracy against the entire Second Amendment industry.”
Biden’s ATF officials, however, defended the actions as a necessary step toward “accountability.”
“We’ve taken steps to hold accountable those few dealers who are engaging in these willful violations,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said in a statement. “They’re not going to have the privilege of being a gun dealer anymore.”
