By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Brady gun prohibition lobbying group on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), alleging the agency is withholding information about retailers that sell an inordinate number of firearms recovered at crime scenes.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition to ATF, the 7-page lawsuit names the Department of Justice as a defendant. The case is known as Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence v. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
According to a Brady press release, the gun control lobbying group wants the court to “compel the release of Demand Letter 2s (DL2s). These are letters sent by ATF to firearms dealers who have been identified as selling at least 25 firearms which are recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes during a calendar year, within three years of the sale, which is referred to as “time to crime.” Brady asserts this is “an indicator of illegal gun trafficking involving gun dealers.”
But last year, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) announced it had confirmed with ATF that the Demand Letter 2 program was ending. At the time, NSSF said the information about dealers had been misused in an attempt to “name and shame” retailers “for crimes in which they had no involvement.”
Pausing the DL2 program is supported by recently-confirmed ATF Director Robert Cekada, according to NPR, which reported “ATF…was withholding the requested letters, saying releasing this information would inadvertently disclose personal information, confidential trade secrets, commercial or financial details and could constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Last June 13, NSSF criticized the misuse of DL2 information by former ATF Director Steve Dettelbach.
“NSSF was vocally critical of the former ATF Director Steve Dettelbach’s abuse of the Demand 2 Program when he shared protected firearm trace data with USA Today and the gun control group Brady United, in violation of the Tiahrt Amendment,” NSSF said at the time. “That amendment restricts public access to sensitive, law enforcement-only firearm tracing data. This restriction is supported by Congress, ATF and law enforcement groups such as the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) because it secures sensitive tracing information which would jeopardize ongoing criminal investigations and put the lives of law enforcement officers, cooperating retailers and witnesses at risk.”
In its lawsuit announcement Thursday, Brady President Kris Brown alleged, “The gun lobby has plainly captured the Trump-Vance administration and imposed their decades-long agenda to keep this data from the public so we cannot reform the business practices that pad gun CEOs’ pockets while worsening the scourge of gun violence nationally. We’re partnering with Democracy Forward to take this ‘soft-on-crime’ administration to court so these letters and the data they contain can remain critical resources for governments at every level, research institutions, and non-profits to develop evidence-based solutions for properly enforcing our laws and truly addressing our nation’s gun violence crisis.”
