Firearm Dealer Fees Double, Video Surveillance Mandatory, and ATF Gets 650 New Investigators

The Federal Firearm Licensee Act is a massive overhaul of the rules governing gun dealers, manufacturers, and importers—the folks with the Federal Firearm Licenses (FFLs). If you’re a licensed dealer, or if you buy guns, this bill is the equivalent of a complete regulatory earthquake. It’s all about tightening the screws on compliance, dramatically increasing government oversight, and making it much tougher to run a gun business.

The Cost of Doing Business Just Doubled

Let’s start with the wallet hit. For standard Type 01 firearm dealers, the cost to get or renew that federal license is doubling, jumping from $1,000 to $2,000. Fees for manufacturers and importers are also doubling across the board (Sec. 13). If you run an online marketplace that facilitates firearm transfers, you are now defined as a “facilitator” and must get a license, which comes with a new $1,000 annual fee (Sec. 20). This isn't just a slight increase; it’s a significant jump in fixed costs for every licensed business, which could hit small, family-owned shops the hardest.

Big Brother’s New Security Requirements

This bill mandates serious physical security upgrades. New applicants must submit a detailed security plan, and existing dealers have to submit one within a year of the new regulations being finalized (Sec. 5). Think locked metal cabinets, fireproof safes, security systems, and video monitoring. If you’re a dealer selling to the public, you must install video and sound surveillance covering all sales areas and keep the recordings for at least 90 days (Sec. 7). You also have to post a sign telling customers they are being recorded. This is a massive new compliance layer that requires significant capital investment and ongoing maintenance, and it’s all subject to the Attorney General’s written approval.

Annual Inventory Audits and Instant Reporting

For years, there’s been debate over requiring dealers to conduct regular inventory checks. This bill settles it: every licensed dealer must now perform a physical check of their entire inventory every quarter. If a gun is lost, stolen, or otherwise unaccounted for, the dealer must report it immediately to the Attorney General and local authorities (Sec. 6). This is a huge time commitment for businesses, especially those with large inventories, and failing to submit the required annual certification can lead to a $5,000 civil penalty or license suspension (Sec. 5).

Shifting the Legal Goalposts

Two critical changes make it easier for the government to penalize dealers. First, the bill lowers the bar for proving a violation. For many licensing and penalty sections, the standard for liability drops from “willfully” to “knowingly” (Sec. 22). This means the government no longer has to prove you intended to break the law, only that you knew you were doing the action that resulted in the violation. Second, if your license is revoked, the automatic “stay” that used to allow you to keep operating while you appealed is gone. Now, you must show “good cause” to the Attorney General to avoid immediate closure (Sec. 14). This gives the government the power to shut down a business instantly, pending a lengthy legal battle.

More Eyes on Sales and Data

The bill also expands what counts as a multiple sale report. Currently, dealers report multiple handgun sales to the same person within five days. This is expanded to include multiple sales of semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, or any long guns that use a magazine holding more than 10 rounds (Sec. 9). Furthermore, the bill removes the decades-old restrictions that prevented the ATF from keeping background check records for more than 24 hours. Now, dealers must keep those NICS check records for at least 90 business days to investigate system misuse, and the ATF will be building searchable electronic databases of all dealer records (Sec. 7, Sec. 25). To enforce all these new rules, the Attorney General is authorized to hire 650 new industry operation investigators for the ATF (Sec. 26), ensuring more frequent and thorough inspections, especially for those dealers deemed “high-risk.”