Are most firearms dealers legitimate, law-abiding businessmen and -women?
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics and ATF, the overwhelming majority of FFLs—99 percent—are law-abiding businessmen and women. Criminals rarely obtain the firearms they use in crime from licensed dealers (less than 8.5 percent) and it is important to note that those few criminals who do acquire firearms via licensed dealers do so by passing an FBI background check, perjuring themselves on a government form (another crime punishable by prison time and steep fines) and by lying to the firearms dealer. In 2005, ATF moved to revoke approximately 2.5 percent of all licenses. And, a single violation, even if not intentional, of any provision of the Gun Control Act or the ATF regulations is all that is needed for ATF to revoke a dealer’s license.
