Existing laws allow too many guns to be sold to individuals who pose a danger to our communities. I’m introducing the Federal Firearm Licensee Act to establish new requirements for licensed dealers to secure their business premises & conduct physical checks of their inventories.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) July 11, 2024
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the Federal Firearm Licensee Act last week.
This legislation aims to change federal laws governing licensed firearm dealers, supposedly targeting those engaging in unlawful practices that lead to gun trafficking and violence.
The act would establish new requirements for licensed firearm dealers to secure their premises and conduct physical checks of their inventories.
It would also expand recordkeeping and reporting requirements and mandate inspections.
Key Provisions of the Federal Firearm Licensee Act (per Durbin):
- Requiring physical security measures to prevent firearm theft;
- Clarifying the standards by which licensed dealers, and their employees, are assessed for purposes of license issuance and renewal;
- Repealing long-standing appropriations riders that have impeded enforcement of existing law by barring the ATF from using funds to require licensed dealers to conduct physical firearm inventories, barring use of funds for consolidating or centralizing FFL firearm sale or disposition records, and prohibiting the public disclosure of firearms trace data; and
- Increasing record retention and electronic data management and sharing for background checks.
The legislation has garnered support from various senators, including Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
Not surprisingly, it is endorsed by organizations such as Everytown, Giffords, March for Our Lives, and Brady United.
U.S. Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL-02) introduced the House companion, which has 107 cosponsors.
NSSF Criticizes the Legislation
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) criticized the Federal Firearm Licensee Act, arguing it’s a way of weaponizing the government against firearm retailers.
The NSSF claims the legislation imposes onerous laws and requirements on retailers instead of holding criminals accountable for their crimes.
“This legislation isn’t a serious attempt to curb criminal activity,” said Mark Oliva, NSSF’s managing director of public affairs, in an email to GunsAmerica. “It is a veiled attempt to force firearm retailers out of business by creating new criteria.”
They argued that one-size-fits-all security requirements would force many small businesses out of the market.
The NSSF also expressed concerns about the legislation’s provision to publicly release firearm trace data. They warned this could jeopardize active and ongoing investigations, a sentiment echoed by former ATF Acting Director Michael Sullivan.
The NSSF highlighted their own efforts to improve security through the Operation Secure Store initiative, part of the Real Solutions Safer Communities campaign, which aims to prevent the criminal misuse of firearms.
Conclusion
As the debate over the FFL Act continues, its impact on firearm retailers remains a contentious issues. We’ll keep an eye on developments and provide updates as they unfold. Stay tuned.
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The FFL holders I know, already are required to do everything on this list regarding their inventory, its paperwork, its security. The real issue is gathering the data on every gun owner and putting it in a DC computer. With any luck, another Windows or Crowdstrike update would wipe it all out.
The government doesn’t need to know who is buying or selling firearms. Just more laws and more regulations to control guns. We are sick of this shit. The government needs to mind its own business and read the Second Amendment a couple of hundred times.
“barring use of funds for consolidating or centralizing FFL firearm sale or disposition records”
In other words, a registry.
All Democrats pushing their gun agenda. All gun laws need to be repealed, including the requirement for an FFL.
Facebook is listed as a post link – I just posted to fb and had this article immediately removed and labeled spam. Why bother to have a link to fb when they are just going to remove the article/news.
Weird. What happened? We post the link to our FB and had no problem.
If you have not been paying attention, all small business engaged in items critical for our shrinking middle class are being harassed. Whether it is small gun shops, small mom and pop drug stores/pharmacies, small machine shops, small construction businesses, small banks, and more, the feds want to reduce or get rid of them all together. It is too hard to control every small business, and CONTROL is the primary goal of Dem/Lib/Woke policy makers.
When all necessities are finally in the hands of big box operators, it will be far easier to keep them in line via tax cuts, favored contracts, etc. Once that happens, all prices will be controlled, all purchases will be monitored, and anything the fed wants us to do will be easy to force compliance.
Am I overreaching? Not hardly. China, North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, and many others have achieved it. Russia is working on it, but needs to reform the Soviet Union before they have the clout to complete it.
That is why EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FURTHER CONTROL ANY ACTIVITY MUST BE MET WITH GREAT FORCE. We must fight the centralization of anything new, and fight to de-centralize federal control over our lives.
So we fight against government imposed abortion restrictions too, right?
If that is what you feel in your heart, Frank, then, YES. I would oppose you, but that should not matter.
The fact that you posed the question to me is more telling than anything.
Well, it IS Durbin, so…………….. What would we expect from a moron???
Once again the communist’s masquerading as Democrats are coming after our guns. Now they want to put the
small firearms dealers out of business to further restrict the access to firearm’s to the big box stores they think they can control
and keep and maintain illegal gun registry’s to seize law-abiding citizens firearms. They hate and despise the Second Amendment and the citizens who
would dare to exercise that right which they see as a threat to their political power over their subjects that they crave.
Round up the usual suspects – Dirty Dick, Saigon Dick, Crazy Mazie, Spartacus, etc….
Some things never change.
Looks great, tastes bad. Instead of punishing the good people why not go after the convicts who can get guns without a problem. Leave the 2nd amendment alone and do something useful
“Dick” can eat a big bag of himself.
Sounds exactly like something that POS Durbin would come up with. What a waste of oxygen!! Just more crap piled on law abiding citizens by the Commie Demorats. Instead of locking up the law breakers, they make life harder for law abiding people to acquire firearms and ammo. WE better pray that Trump gets elected or we are screwed and America as we have known it is down the toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!
California has passed extremely onerous security and record keeping requirements for ffls. These include bars on doors and windows, securing all firearms in a safe when the business is not open, videotaping all entrances and exits 24/7, video taping all areas where customers can access firearms, and all areas where firearms sales are processed. The video records, as I recall, are required to be maintained for 3 years. It put my table top FFL out of business because3 he did not conduct enough transactions to pay for the security requirements, much less the storage requirements. So yes, it is intended to put small gun shops out of business. This is one of several steps, as California enacted an 11% excise tax on firearms, ammunition and accessories as of July 1, 2024.
It would also seem that Dick’s bill is intended to allow a universal/national gun registry.
Maybe it’s because your “table top FFL” with so few transactions isn’t really a legitimate use of an FFL to be in the business of selling firearms, but just a means to allow you easier access to purchasing firearms.