How gun dealers with serious past violations got licenses back under Trump
Gun Dealers with Major Violations Regain Licenses Under Trump Administration
Activelifezero.com – Facebook raffles offering exciting prizes like PlayStations, NBA tickets, and firearms from a local shop drew crowds. However, authorities eventually discovered that the contest organizer lacked a proper firearms license and was, in fact, a convicted felon. When ATF agents began investigating these promotional contests, the man claimed the shop owner who supplied the guns was aware of his criminal history and assisted him regardless. The shop owner contested this assertion.
ATF investigators subsequently examined The Outdoorsman’s Attic, located in Sheridan, Colorado, and uncovered that the proprietor had manipulated records to conceal the felon’s involvement. Based on these infractions alongside numerous additional issues, the ATF under President Joe Biden removed the shop’s license two years prior. Today, under President Donald Trump, the establishment operates once more. This situation reflects a broader pattern.
A Shift in Federal Gun Policy
A CNN investigation identified nearly a dozen establishments whose licenses had been revoked during the Biden administration but are now permitted to sell firearms again under Trump. The current administration has implemented a more lenient stance toward gun regulation, notably terminating the Biden-era “zero-tolerance” policy designed to penalize the most problematic gun retailers. In at least five separate instances, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice dismissed legal challenges filed by gun shops contesting their license revocations, effectively restoring their ability to sell firearms.
ATF officials confirmed they invited previously disqualified dealers to submit new license applications and approved at least 23 shops, though specific names were not disclosed. Several of these newly licensed businesses carried significant violation histories. ATF documentation reviewed by CNN revealed that two establishments received multiple warning letters indicating that at least 25 firearms they sold ended up at crime scenes within a single year. According to those warning letters, a minimum of 175 crime guns were recovered from those two shops between 2021 and 2024.
Concerns About Reduced Oversight
Former ATF officials expressed particular worry that these businesses have regained their licenses. Shops that neglect background checks or sell to straw buyers contribute disproportionately to violent crime nationwide. Marianna Mitchem, who led the inspection division before departing ATF in May 2025, emphasized this concern. She currently serves as an adviser for Everytown, a gun violence prevention organization.
“We were laser focused on inspecting the gun stores that were the source of crime guns,” Mitchem stated. She highlighted that straw buyers and unlicensed dealers represent the primary channels through which traffickers illegally obtain firearms, adding, “The bottom line is, ATF isn’t focused on firearms trafficking anymore… and it’s very sad, because our citizens, our communities, are going to pay the price for this.”
ATF chief counsel Robert Leider countered these concerns, asserting that oversight has not diminished. “We are taking corrupt dealers very seriously and we are bringing serious charges when we find them,” he explained to CNN. “We are taking straw buyers very seriously. The difference is that this administration does not see any tension between fighting violent crime and reducing restrictions on law-abiding citizens.” Leider noted that for shops regaining licenses revoked under Biden-era policies, the agency conducted both legal and factual reviews. He acknowledged that some reapplications involved technical violations rather than the severe infractions gun control advocates had highlighted.
Dealers Feel Unfairly Targeted
The Outdoorsman’s Attic chose not to provide comment. Meanwhile, other shops that recovered their licenses argued they had been unfairly singled out by ATF during the Biden years. Will Boswell, owner of The Tactical Edge in Tennessee, lost his license in 2023 and successfully reapplied under Trump last fall.
“We were not giving out guns to people that … should not have them or purposely like not running background checks just to get a sale done,” Boswell said. “We’ve never done anything like that. We will never do anything like that. But the way that the ATF portrayed that and spoke to us, it made us feel like criminals.”
Since Trump’s return to the presidency last year, the White House has substantially reduced the number of ATF inspectors and diminished their power to recommend license revocations for federal gun law violations, according to CNN reporting. Additionally, ATF has decreased transparency in its enforcement activities by removing firearms-license inspection reports from public access.
