ATF Urged to Crack Down on Chicago Gun Dealers
At least 13 Chicago-area gun dealers failed to conduct background checks, falsified ledgers and didn’t record gun sales of weapons that were disproportionately used in crimes, legislators charged in a letter to the ATF.
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Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley and other lawmakers are demanding that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives turn over more detailed data from the past five years on inspections of gun dealers after a recent investigation found that the agency repeatedly went easy on gun dealers in the Chicago area that violated federal regulations, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
“At a time when gun violence and crime are rising, it is unacceptable for bad actors to repeatedly avoid accountability,” Quigley and 26 other U.S. representatives, all Democrats, said in the letter to the ATF, which also said they “are concerned that ATF has failed to hold repeat offender gun dealers accountable.” The investigation found that 13 gun dealers singled out by the city of Chicago routinely got off with little or no punishment even after they violated the agency’s own guidelines for enforcement. In several cases, dealers failed to conduct background checks, falsified ledgers and didn’t record gun sales of weapons that were disproportionately used in crimes.
