Under the Biden administration, the ATF has engaged in a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to inspections of Federal Firearms Licensees, revoking licenses for the smallest of infractions like minor clerical errors in paperwork. In the last half of 2021, the ATF revoked just five FFL licenses, but by 2023 the number of revocations had grown to 157. That same year Gun Owners of America announced it was suing ATF over its newly draconian definition of what constitutes a “willful” violation of ATF regulations. 

It appears the ATF may once again be shifting direction, this time backing off its “zero tolerance” mandate. Bearing Arms has learned the National Shooting Sports Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives asking for any records about recent changes to the agency’s “zero tolerance” policy for gun store owners who “willfully” violate any of the agency’s many rules regulating FFLs. 

The NSSF FOIA request seeks any information about a Federal Firearms Administrative Action Policy and Procedures document issued on or about August 29, 2024, that supersedes a policy and procedures document issued in January, 2023. Specifically, NSSF wants to know about the “revocable offenses” for Federal Firearms Licensees contained within the most recent document, and what, if any, changes have been made. 

NSSF told the ATF the public “urgently needs to know whether this policy is still in effect”, saying the zero tolerance policy announced by ATF Director Steve Dettelbach has resulted in a “drastic increase in FFL revocations”, which in turn has had a “devastating effect on small businesses and the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights by purchasing firearms from retailers.” 

In the FOIA request, NSSF also maintains that if the recent document is not released “expeditiously”, the likely result will be a “loss of substantial due process rights for the FFLs” who are subject to the guidance contained within the documents, including having their licenses revoked for what are minor and inadvertent infractions. 

So what prompted the revision, which, if true, would be very good news for FFLs? I spoke with Pete Forcelli, retired deputy assistant director of the ATF, who says there’s been at least one discussion/confrontation between several Special Agents in Charge and Dettelbach himself earlier this summer over the “zero tolerance” policy. According to Forcelli, there’s been “tremendous pushback” from some field agents since the policy was implemented, with agents complaining that the ATF’s mandate was jeopardizing (and in some cases, destroying) the working relationship between the agents and gun shops across the country. 

It’s unclear at this point, however, what exactly has changed with the revocation guidelines and to what extent the “zero tolerance” policy has actually been rolled back. The ATF could shed some light on those changes by publicly releasing the most recent Federal Firearms Administrative Action Policy and Procedures on its own, but to date, it has declined to do so, which is where NSSF’s Freedom of Information Act comes in. 

Bearing Arms will be submitting a FOIA request of our own to ATF in the coming days, and we’ll be talking more about the rumored new guidance with Forcelli on Monday’s Bearing Arms Cam & Co. It may very well be that any changes are mere window dressing, but it would be big news and a welcome relief to FFLs throughout the United States if, in fact, the agency is truly walking back its efforts to shut down gun shops for minor infractions that, in some cases, appear not to have been “willful” at all.