(Ken Silva, Headline USA) GOP lawmakers want to know why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released a list of firearms dealers to the anti-gun media earlier this year, in violation of federal law.
The information leaked by the ATF was about its “Demand Letter 2 program,” which was created to identify firearms dealers that sell the most crime guns. About 2% of gun dealers nationwide are subject to this program. They’re required to participate if the ATF finds that they sold 25 or more firearms within a calendar year with a “time-to-crime” of three years or less.
The program is supposedly in place to aid law enforcement investigations, but the ATF leaked a list of dealers subject to the program as a “name-and-shame campaign,” according to critics.
“ATF’s release of protected trace data to Brady United and the media in clear violation of federal law enabled an entirely predictable ‘name-and-shame’ media campaign of misleading headlines smearing the reputation of law-abiding firearm retailers by suggesting they are engaged in illegal sales,” said Lawrence G. Keane, the general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
“ATF knows these retailers are their allies and are on the front lines combatting the diversion of guns into the illegal black market. ATF’s unlawful release of this data to a gun control group damaged its relationship with the industry. It lends credence to the notion that the Biden administration is weaponizing the whole of government against our industry to score cheap political points.”
Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., and 31 other House Republicans sent a letter to ATF Director Steve Dettelbach about the matter Wednesday.
“Disclosing information from the National Trace Center for non-law enforcement related purposes can seriously damage the reputation of law-abiding firearms dealers since the information lacks the context of a trace. There are many reasons why a [dealer] may have a higher number of traces. For instance, the [dealer] or customer is a victim of burglary, or the [dealer] has a high volume of sales which will inherently make it more likely to have sold firearms show up in traces.”
The lawmakers asked ATF Director Dettelbach to acknowledge that the disclosure of the gun dealers data was illegal, and to explain what he’s doing to rectify the situation. Dettelbach has 60 days from Wednesday to respond.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
