New Federal License Required to Scrap Firearms: Destroyers Must Report Annual Volume to ATF

The Firearm Destruction Licensure Act of 2025 is setting up a new federal rulebook for anyone in the business of destroying guns. Essentially, if your company’s job is to take firearms out of circulation, you’re about to get a new federal designation: “firearm destroyer.”

Starting 180 days after the bill becomes law, you’ll need a specific license to operate this kind of business. The core requirement here is standardization, especially when dealing with government-owned guns. The law demands that a “covered method of firearm destruction” be used—a process that renders the gun and all its parts permanently unusable, turning it into pure scrap metal. The Attorney General gets 180 days to issue the final rule defining exactly what that scrap process looks like, which is a big deal because that definition will determine the compliance costs for every licensed destroyer.

The Scrap Metal Mandate and Government Contracts

This bill focuses heavily on how governments—local police, state agencies, and tribal authorities—retire their unwanted firearms. If a licensed destroyer takes a gun from a government entity to scrap it, they must use that new, federally defined “covered method.” This is designed to ensure that when a gun is supposed to be gone, it’s really, truly gone.

To help local governments comply with this new standard, the bill sets up a new grant program. Starting one year after enactment, state and local governments can apply for federal funds to help cover the cost of paying these licensed destroyers to properly scrap their firearms. For example, a small-town police department retiring 50 old service weapons can now apply for a grant to pay the licensed dealer to turn them into scrap, rather than footing the entire bill themselves.

New Paperwork and Public Data

If you’re a licensed destroyer, get ready for annual reporting. Every year, you must tell the Director of the ATF exactly how many guns you destroyed. This report has to break down how many came from government agencies using the mandated scrap method versus how many were destroyed under “other circumstances.”

Crucially, the Attorney General must make both the individual reports and the overall summary data public. This is a big step toward transparency, letting the public see exactly how many firearms are being taken out of circulation and by whom. It also means that if a licensed dealer charges a government entity a fee for destruction services, that fee structure must also be made public, which could introduce some competitive pressure into the market.

The Risk for Existing Dealers

For current licensed firearm dealers who already handle destruction as part of their business, there’s a new compliance hurdle—and a serious penalty for missing it. If you were licensed before this law but want to continue destroying guns, you must certify to the Attorney General that you will follow the new destruction rules for government firearms.

If you miss that certification deadline, the Attorney General can revoke your entire firearms license after giving you a chance to explain yourself. This is a significant threat to existing businesses; failure to file one specific piece of paperwork related to a new destruction standard could shut down their entire operation. It adds a layer of administrative risk that wasn’t there before, potentially increasing compliance costs for every dealer who handles destruction, costs that could eventually be passed down to consumers.