Independence for the Gun Lobby: DOGE/Trump’s Plan to Gut ATF Rules and Protect Rogue Gun Dealers
As the rest of the country celebrates July 4th, the Trump administration is busy rolling back decades of hard-won gun safety progress.
This July 4th, while most of us are preparing for barbecues and fireworks, the Trump administration is preparing for something else: a gift to the gun industry on a golden platter.
According to The Washington Post, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to slash up to 50 firearm regulations by July 4. And these aren’t just any regulations; they’re the ones designed to keep illegal guns off our streets and stop the most dangerous dealers from continuing to sell firearms after repeated violations. And the administration is timing these rollbacks to a holiday that’s supposed to celebrate freedom, safety, and our shared national values.
Let’s be clear on one thing: These rollbacks are not about liberty or efficiency. They’re not actually aimed at “protecting” the Second Amendment. They are precisely designed to boost the gun industry’s bottom line at the cost of American lives.
DOGE’s Dangerous Agenda
The Washington Post confirmed what many of us feared: DOGE has embedded individuals with no understanding of the ATF or its critical role in regulating the gun industry with instructions to systematically dismantle the agency’s regulatory power. The plan started with 47 rule changes (a symbolic nod to Trump as the 47th president), but now the administration is poised to go beyond that, with more than 50 rollbacks underway.
DOGE is reportedly working to change which firearms can be imported, shorten key background check forms that prevent dealers from selling guns to prohibited people, refund licensing fees, strip oversight authority from key ATF positions, and further weaken firearm dealer accountability. The Trump administration has already pushed out the agency’s experts, turned ATF’s general counsel into a political appointment, and left the agency without a confirmed director while handing interim leadership to unqualified political allies with little or no engagement in the agency’s day-to-day work.
The Trump administration knows that what it is doing is dismantling the ATF, even though it cannot do that through administrative action alone, so it is labeling these gutting changes as reductions in “red tape.” Let’s be clear — the outcome will be lives lost to preventable gun violence because the only agency charged with regulating the gun industry was dismantled without any public input, debate, or consideration. These changes will cost lives and benefit only one entity: the gun industry.
On the Chopping Block
This news follows two other deeply troubling developments that signal a full-blown assault on gun violence prevention at the federal level.
First, budget documents revealed that the Justice Department plans to eliminate 541 of the roughly 800 inspectors at ATF who are responsible for monitoring licensed gun dealers. These inspectors play a critical role in ensuring that the more than 78,000 federally licensed dealers nationwide are following the law. If these cuts go through, ATF’s capacity to conduct inspections will be reduced by more than two-thirds. That means even fewer investigations (currently, most gun stores are inspected only once a decade due to the ATF being starved of resources to hold the industry accountable), fewer consequences for law-breaking dealers, and more guns making their way into the hands of prohibited gun purchasers.
Second is the reported elimination of ATF’s Demand Letter 2 (DL2) program. This is a program that helps stop the flow of illegal guns by keeping a close eye on federally licensed gun dealers who sell a high number of firearms that shortly show up at crime scenes. When the ATF traces 25 or more guns quickly used in crimes back to the same dealer within a single calendar year, it flags that dealer for closer monitoring. The ATF then requires the dealer to report certain types of gun sales so that tracing those guns is easier for the ATF. If the program shuts down, those high-risk dealers will slip through the cracks — leading to more crime and more lives lost.
But according to communications first reported by the gun lobby — not the government — the DL2 program has been shut down. If true, this will allow even more high-risk dealers to fly under the radar. We know that just five percent of gun dealers are responsible for over 90 percent of guns recovered at crime scenes. Eliminating this program is like turning off the smoke alarm in a burning building.
The actions taken by this administration against law enforcement programs and policies that are proven to save lives are logic defying — especially for any administration purporting to be “tough on crime.”
Shedding Light in Darkness
Even as this administration works to slash the ATF’s workforce and wipe out critical programs, we are continuing to shine a light on the gun industry’s role in fueling gun violence. Through Brady’s Gun Store Transparency Project, we’ve built the largest public database of gun dealer inspection reports in the country. And just last week, we updated the site to include the high-crime gun dealers who are required to participate in the DL2 program.
Thanks to data Brady obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, we found that two-thirds of the dealers flagged for the DL2 program in 2024 were also flagged in 2022 and 2023. That means the same dangerous dealers are continuing to operate… and continuing to put lives at risk. We also released a new analysis showing that as states weaken their own gun laws, the number of DL2 dealers in those states increases. In other words, without strong federal oversight, the problem gets worse.
Our Gun Store Transparency Project makes it easier than ever for journalists, researchers, policymakers, and everyday Americans to find out which local dealers have been both cited for violations and linked to large numbers of crime guns. And that’s the very kind of information that the gun lobby-backed Trump administration doesn’t want us to know.
Action You Can Take Today
This administration and the gun industry both understand the power of data, and that’s exactly why they are trying to erase it. By cutting the DL2 program, defunding ATF gun dealer inspections, and weakening firearm regulations, they are attempting to pull the curtain back over an industry that has operated in the shadows for far too long. We are refusing to let that happen. Because we know that freedom without safety is not freedom at all.
So while the Trump administration tries to gut gun safety regulations under the cover of a holiday weekend that typically sees the highest unintentional shootings of the year, we will keep exposing the truth. We will keep holding the gun industry accountable. And we will keep fighting for a future where every family in America can live free from the threat of gun violence.
Here’s what you can do right now:
Visit GunStoreTransparency.org to learn which gun dealers in your community have been cited for violating the law or have been linked to crime guns. Share this information with your networks, your lawmakers, and your local media.
Talk to your community: your neighbors, your school board, your faith leaders. Let them know what’s happening behind the scenes and why it matters.
Support Brady’s work so we can continue using every tool we have to hold the gun industry accountable and protect our communities.
The gun lobby may want us in the dark, but we’re choosing to act in the light.
To my fellow Americans, as we approach the 4th of July, I am grateful to each of you who continue to stand up for decency, for safety, and for a better future for our families and our fellow Americans.