WASHINGTON – Today, Everytown applauded Rep. Joe Morelle (NY-25) for introducing the Gun Theft Prevention Act, legislation that would require gun stores to use security requirements such as locked cabinets,video surveillance, site hardening and other necessary access controls, while authorizing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to hire an additional 650 employees to conduct gun dealer inspections and enforce the law.
“Too many gun sellers are failing to take common-sense precautions to keep thieves from stealing their potentially deadly merchandise,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. “We applaud Representative Morelle for introducing legislation to ensure that gun dealers fulfill their most basic responsibility: keeping guns out of criminal hands.”
In addition to requiring increased security at gun stores and giving ATF more tools for enforcement, the legislation would:
- Require employees of gun dealers who have access to firearms to pass the same federal background check as gun buyers;
- Allow ATF to require gun store owners to keep an inventory of the firearms in their possession and to conduct an annual review of their inventory to identify missing firearms;
- Create stronger consequences for gun stores that do not comply with minimum security requirements, including suspending or revoking their license to sell firearms;
- Repeal the Tiahrt Amendment to allow ATF to release firearm trace data for use by gun researchers;
- Partially repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act by removing civil protections for gun shop owners who negligently allow guns to be stolen, and used in violent crime; and
- Require individual gun owners to report lost and stolen firearms to local police and the ATF.