We Just Launched Our Gun Store Transparency Project
The largest database of ATF gun store inspection reports ever released to the public, exposing gun stores cited for breaking the law
We spent years filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and fighting in court to secure thousands of pages of federal gun dealer inspection reports — which we have now mapped and made available to you at GunStoreTransparency.org.
Type in a zip code and find gun dealers that have been cited for violations in your community and across the country.
The Gun Store Transparency Project ensures that the American public will no longer be kept in the dark about businesses that contribute to gun violence in their communities, including whether federal authorities are failing to hold them accountable.
Please consider sharing this new resource on social media.
Thank you for joining Brady in taking action, not sides, to create a safer America free of gun violence.
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Brady Publishes Largest Searchable Database Of ATF Inspection Reports Ever Released To The Public
Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project Includes Over 2,000 ATF Gun Store Inspection Records Illustrating Why Improved Oversight And Regulation Of Gun Dealers Is Critical
Today, Brady launches the largest searchable database of ATF Inspection Reports ever released to the public. Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project, found at GunStoreTransparency.org, contains 2,212 reports from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), where ATF took administrative action against federal firearms licensees found to be in violation of the law. Users can visually explore this data, viewing documents by geographic location, by violation type, and by year. This site is a living project that will be updated with new reports and information that Brady continues to receive from ATF.
Brady President Kris Brown shared:
“This database reveals that when ATF inspects gun dealers and finds serious violations, it rarely takes decisive action to reform or shut them down. Americans, and particularly Black and Brown Americans, pay for this lack of enforcement with their lives. The information in this database is even more important after a year of record-setting gun violence – violence that we know is fueled by easy access to guns that are negligently or willfully sold unlawfully by gun dealers.
By making public ATF gun dealer inspection reports we can spotlight the role that meaningful inspections and enforcement can have in reforming the bad actors in the industry and uplift the important actions of the overwhelming majority of gun dealers who follow and go above and beyond the law in order to keep gun owners and our communities safe.
Brady fought in court for these records, and they are now the property of the American public through Brady’s database. Our hope is that every lawmaker, reporter, and researcher uses this site to help improve inspections. This is a clarion call to federal leaders to act; to state and local leaders to act; and to all of us to pay attention to the common-sense solutions we can implement right now to save lives.”
Brady Senior Counsel and Director of Programs Josh Scharff shared:
“The gun lobby has worked for decades to stop the publication of valuable data about the sources of crime guns, and also to weaken federal efforts to inspect, reform, and enforce the law against firearms businesses that choose profit over public safety. These inspection reports provide new insight into some of the businesses that have not followed the laws designed to ensure the safe transfer of firearms and combat illegal gun trafficking, as well as what, if anything, the federal government is doing about it. The public owns and has a right to this information. If our nation is going to end gun violence, we must address the supply of crime guns and meaningfully act to prevent guns from flowing into the criminal market and then into our communities. Brady’s project will help to shed a light on the need for urgent reform, action, and modernization. When over 100 people every day die from gun violence, taking action to enforce the law through improved gun store inspections must be a top priority for every elected official at every level of government nationwide.”
About Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project:
Brady has been defending the victims of gun violence in court and pushing for comprehensive and effective federal, state, and local oversight of the gun industry for decades. Beginning in 2017, Brady filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain federal inspection reports where ATF took administrative action against gun stores cited for violating the law. Ultimately when the records were not produced by ATF, Brady took action in court to force production and has received over 55,000 pages to date of these reports. This database includes and builds upon the documents used in investigations conducted by USA Today and The Trace in 2021, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others. This database is the most comprehensive and detailed collection of ATF inspection reports ever released publicly, and will continue to grow as Brady obtains new reports from ATF.
Fast Facts About The Documents And Data On This Site:
● 2,212 ATF inspection reports obtained and processed by Brady
● 130,525 active federal firearms licensees, as of Fiscal Year 2020.
● 5,827 firearm compliance inspections conducted by ATF in Fiscal Year 2020
● 0.7% of licensees inspected in Fiscal Year 2020 had their licenses revoked
Brady has one powerful mission — to unite all Americans against gun violence. We work across Congress, the courts, and our communities with over 90 grassroots chapters, bringing together young and old, red and blue, and every shade of color to find common ground in common sense. In the spirit of our namesakes Jim and Sarah Brady, we have fought for over 45 years to take action, not sides, and we will not stop until this epidemic ends. It’s in our hands.
Brady | United Against Gun Violence
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and Engagement Officer: Liz Dunning
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We’re uniting people from coast to coast, liberal and conservative, young and old, fed up and fired up, to end gun violence.
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As a gun violence survivor whose dad was killed by a gun, as a dad myself, and as an American, I believe in Brady and the survivors who lead it. They’re the ‘coach’ our team needs to win against the gun lobby. And with Brady’s life-saving programs like End Family Fire on the line, we need you to get off the sidelines and help us save lives.
Help End Unsecured Storage of Guns and Save Lives
Brady is raising $1,000,000 to expand our life-saving End Family Fire campaign to reduce preventable deaths and injuries from unsecured firearms in the home.
With your support, we will release new End Family Fire materials focused on preventing unwanted firearm access; expand messaging to talk about the preventable tragedies that result from unsecured firearms, such as school shootings; partner with influencers in communities disproportionately impacted by family fire, such as young Black men, seniors, and veterans, to create targeted content for distribution; build new partnerships with educational, healthcare, and parental organizations to reach a broader audience with our life-saving messaging; and expand our first state-based pilot End Family Fire program in Missouri, which is gathering critical information to inform targeted campaign efforts elsewhere. As firearm suicide makes up two-thirds of all gun deaths, End Family Fire will continue to prioritize our suicide prevention efforts through the release of new content.
Nearly half of all gun owners changed how or where they kept their firearms after learning about End Family Fire. With your support, we can reach more gun owners and impacted families to reduce preventable deaths – and save more lives.
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Steve Kerr
Reggie Lee
Dr. John Maa
Kath Tsakalakis
Marita Daly
Jeff Bleich
Anne Ching
Eric Havian
Dennis Joyce