Prevent Illegal Gun Sales Act

Key Points

• The bill would triple the number of annual compliance inspections the government can conduct on licensed firearms dealers, increasing from once to three times per year. This gives ATF agents more opportunities to catch dealers who are breaking the law.
• Penalties for gun dealers who violate federal firearms laws would jump significantly. The maximum prison sentence for general violations rises from one year to five years, and dealers whose recordkeeping failures are tied to gun trafficking could face up to 10 years behind bars.
• The Attorney General would gain the power to suspend dealer licenses and impose civil fines of up to $10,000 per violation, rather than being limited to full license revocation. This provides a more flexible enforcement toolkit for dealing with problem dealers.
• The bill removes the requirement that a dealer's violations be "willful" before regulators can take action, lowering the legal bar for enforcement. This makes it easier to hold dealers accountable for negligent or reckless behavior even without proof of intentional wrongdoing.
• ATF would be authorized to hire at least 80 new employees focused on carrying out additional inspections. Dealers with 10 or more crime guns traced back to them, or those convicted of illegal transfers, could be required to conduct a full physical inventory.