How gun dealers with serious past violations got licenses back under Trump
Gun Dealers with Major Violations Regain Licenses Under Trump Administration
A Policy Shift Allows Previously Revoked Shops to Sell Firearms Again
Healfromzero.com – Facebook raffles offering attractive prizes like PlayStations, NBA tickets, and firearms from a local shop caught the attention of authorities. What they discovered was surprising: the individual organizing these contests lacked a proper license to deal in firearms. Even more notably, he was a convicted felon. When Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents investigated further, the man claimed that the shop owner supplying the guns was aware of his criminal history and assisted him regardless—a statement the owner subsequently denied.
ATF investigators examined the financial records of The Outdoorsman’s Attic, located in Sheridan, Colorado. Their findings revealed that the proprietor had altered documentation to conceal the felon’s involvement in the business. Based on these violations alongside numerous other infractions, the ATF under former President Joe Biden removed the shop’s license two years prior. Today, with President Donald Trump in office, the establishment operates once more.
This situation is not isolated. A CNN investigation uncovered approximately a dozen establishments whose licenses were revoked during the Biden administration but have since been permitted to resume firearm sales under Trump. The current administration has embraced a more lenient stance toward gun regulation, notably terminating the Biden-era “zero-tolerance” initiative designed to penalize the most problematic gun retailers.
In at least five separate instances, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice dismissed legal challenges brought by gun shops contesting their license revocations under Biden. This allowed these businesses to return to selling firearms. According to ATF confirmation, dealers were invited to submit new license applications for those lost under Biden, with at least 23 shops receiving approval. The agency declined to name the specific retailers involved.
Concerns About Oversight and Public Safety
Several businesses awarded new licenses under Trump had previously been identified for significant violations. ATF records examined by CNN indicate that two of these shops received multiple warning letters noting that at least 25 firearms they sold were recovered from crime scenes within a single year. Those warning letters documented that 175 crime guns from these two establishments had been recovered between 2021 and 2024.
Former ATF officials expressed particular concern that these businesses are now licensed again. They emphasized that shops failing to conduct proper background checks or selling to straw buyers contribute disproportionately to violent crime nationwide. Marianna Mitchem, who led the inspection division before departing ATF in May 2025, highlighted this issue. She currently serves as an adviser for Everytown, a gun violence prevention advocacy organization.
“We were laser focused on inspecting the gun stores that were the source of crime guns,” Mitchem stated. She added that straw buyers and unlicensed dealers represent the primary channels through which traffickers illegally obtain firearms. “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 contested the notion that oversight has 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 gun shops regaining licenses previously revoked under Biden-era policies, the agency conducted both legal and factual reviews. He acknowledged that some reapplication cases involved technical violations rather than the severe infractions that gun control advocates have emphasized.
Dealers Feel They Were Unfairly Targeted
The Outdoorsman’s Attic chose not to comment on the situation. Meanwhile, other shops that regained their licenses under Trump argued they had been unfairly singled out by ATF during the Biden administration. 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 office last year, the White House has substantially reduced the number of ATF inspectors while also diminishing their power to recommend license revocations for federal gun law violations, as CNN previously reported. Additionally, ATF has decreased transparency regarding its enforcement activities by removing firearms-license inspection reports from public access.