Gun industry privacy vs. gun safety on full display at ATF hearing
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, better known as the ATF, dramatically reduced the number of gun dealers who had their licenses revoked last year, signaling a new approach under President Donald Trump. One of the practices ATF has ended is publicly listing revoked dealers, holding a hearing just yesterday focused on how to protect the privacy of both gun owners and the gun industry. Is this a move toward fairer enforcement, or is it a step back from oversight? USA TODAY Investigative Reporter Nick Penzenstadler joins The Excerpt to discuss why the ATF stripped licenses from fewer gun shops in 2025.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, |
| 0:09.4 | better known as the ATF, dramatically reduced the number of gun dealers who had their licenses revoked last year, |
| 0:16.0 | signaling a new approach under President Donald Trump. |
| 0:19.1 | One of the practices ATF has ended is publicly listing |
| 0:22.9 | revoked dealers, holding a hearing just yesterday focused on how to protect the privacy of both |
| 0:29.0 | gun owners and the gun industry. Is this a move toward fairer enforcement or is it a step back |
| 0:35.6 | from oversight? |
| 0:46.3 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, May 15, 2026. |
| 0:56.8 | Joining me to discuss why the ATF stripped licenses from fewer gun shops in 2025 is USA Today investigative reporter Nick Pinsent Stodler. It's so good to speak with you, Nick. Thanks, Dana. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:01.3 | Nick, people may hear ATF and immediately think politics, but the numbers do tell a story here. |
| 1:08.0 | Only 56 gun dealer licenses were revoked in 2025. It's down from |
| 1:13.7 | 183 in 2024. What actually changed inside the agency? So this has been a political football for |
| 1:22.2 | years and we've followed this. And there are administrations that put emphasis on cracking down on |
| 1:27.3 | trafficking and gun shops, |
| 1:29.1 | particularly like with the Biden administration. And then Trump was elected and signed an executive |
| 1:34.2 | order right after being sworn into office saying we need to revamp some of these policies. So we're |
| 1:39.4 | seeing the result of that now where the more lenient hand at gun shops and gun licensees is back in the operating |
| 1:46.8 | manual. So they're taking fewer licenses. They're giving people more chances. And the numbers of |
| 1:51.6 | licenses revoked is reflecting that. If we pull back and look further back than just the last |
| 1:57.6 | couple of years, how unusual is this drop? |
| 2:06.6 | Yeah, we're back to these Trump era numbers, back to 2016, 2017. If you look back, |
| 2:10.6 | you know, just dozens of shops instead of well over 100 with the Biden administration. |
... |
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