The US government will stop defining who counts as a gun dealer
What happened
The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is removing its definitions for who counts as a firearms dealer. This means fewer people will be legally required to get a federal license to sell guns.
Why it matters
In 2022, Congress passed a law to expand the definition of a firearms dealer, aiming to close a loophole that allowed many private gun sales to happen without background checks. The ATF then added specific examples and presumptions to clarify who needed a license. Now, the agency says those clarifications did not work as expected, so it is removing them. This change makes it harder to prosecute unlicensed gun sellers.
The signal
Watch for changes in the number of federal firearms license applications and enforcement actions against unlicensed sellers in the next year.