The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco (ATF) launched a new era of reform in 2025 focused on a commitment to transparency, accountability, and partnership with the firearms industry, gun owners, and the public. Under new leadership, the agency claimed to have fundamentally changed course, moving toward a model built on trust and collaboration.
However, a major gun control group is suing the ATF and the Justice Department over the federal agencies' failure to release documents and other information about who the largest sellers of crime guns in the U.S. are.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is demanding in its lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday that the court compel the ATF to release information related to what the agency calls Demand Letter 2s. These are letters ATF sends to gun dealers and other sellers that have been identified as selling at least 25 or more guns recovered at crime scenes in a calendar year.
Brady has collected this information from the ATF before and has used the information to compile it into tracking databases and reports on its website.
Just last year the ATF suspended the DL2 program after gun rights groups long criticized its existence.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a national trade association for the firearms industry that announced the break in the program back in June, said DL2 letters were just used to "'name-and-shame' firearm retailers for crimes in which they had no involvement."
Case Information
Case No.: 1:26-cv-01980
Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
333 Constitution Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20001
Plaintiff: The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence & Democracy Forward
Defendants: The Department of Justice and ATF
Background
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is a nonprofit organization focused on advocating for gun control and reducing gun violence, while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is a federal agency responsible for enforcing laws related to firearms and explosives, including regulating gun dealers and conducting background checks. The Demand Letter 2 (DL2) program is a federal firearms tracking initiative established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February 2000. It was created as a law enforcement tool to identify gun dealers linked to high volumes of crime weapons and to curb illegal gun trafficking.The "Time-to-Crime" Trigger
An Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)—commonly a gun store—is placed into the DL2 program if it meets a strict, data-driven threshold:
Opponents (Like the NSSF): The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and gun rights advocates criticize the program, stating it is used to "name-and-shame" lawful businesses for crimes committed by individuals long after the point of sale.
The 2025 "Pause": Following intense pressure from the gun industry, the ATF quietly paused and effectively ended the DL2 program.
The 2026 Lawsuit: The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit to compel the ATF to release historical DL2 records from 2017 to 2021 and 2025, which the ATF has withheld citing privacy and commercial trade secret exemptions.
An Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)—commonly a gun store—is placed into the DL2 program if it meets a strict, data-driven threshold:
Volume: The dealer must have 25 or more firearms traced back to their shop from law enforcement recoveries within a single calendar year.
Timeframe: The "time-to-crime" must be three years or less. This means less than three years passed between the retail sale of the gun and the date police recovered it at a crime scene.
Timeframe: The "time-to-crime" must be three years or less. This means less than three years passed between the retail sale of the gun and the date police recovered it at a crime scene.
The Core Controversy and the Program's Current Status
The DL2 program has become a massive battleground between gun control organizations, the firearm industry, and varying presidential administrations:Proponents (Like the Brady Center): Point to ATF data showing that between 2000 and 2021, the program generated nearly 200,000 investigative leads for law enforcement. They argue it shines a light on a tiny fraction of rogue dealers responsible for the vast majority of crime guns.
Opponents (Like the NSSF): The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and gun rights advocates criticize the program, stating it is used to "name-and-shame" lawful businesses for crimes committed by individuals long after the point of sale.
The 2025 "Pause": Following intense pressure from the gun industry, the ATF quietly paused and effectively ended the DL2 program.
The 2026 Lawsuit: The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit to compel the ATF to release historical DL2 records from 2017 to 2021 and 2025, which the ATF has withheld citing privacy and commercial trade secret exemptions.