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Regulation of Firearm Dealers in the United States: An Analysis of State Law and Opportunities for Improvement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Jon S. Vernick ,
Daniel W. Webster ,
Maria T. Bulzacchelli  and
Julie Samia Mair
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Extract

Firearms were associated with 30,136 deaths in the United States in 2003; of these, 11,920 were homicides. For every firearm homicide, there are four people who suffer non-fatal firearm assaults. Like many other consumer products in the US, most guns are initially sold to the public through a network of retail dealers. Persons in the business of selling firearms must obtain a federal firearm dealer's license. There were more than 54,000 federally licensed gun dealers in the United States in 2005, though this reflects a seventy-eight percent decline since 1994. Some states also require a state license to sell firearms.

Licensed firearm dealers are an important source of guns for criminals and gun traffickers. In one analysis of gun trafficking investigations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), licensed dealers accounted for a plurality of all guns diverted to the illegal market.

Type
Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , Winter 2006 , pp. 765 - 775
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

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