Firearms dealers must lock up inventory or lose their license
H.R. 1097 — SECURE Firearm Storage Act · Filed by Brad Schneider (D-IL) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires federally licensed firearms dealers, manufacturers, and importers to physically secure their inventory when not open for business—using steel rods through trigger guards, locked safes, gun cabinets, or vaults—and to store business records in locked fireproof safes or vaults. The Attorney General can add further security rules (cameras, alarms, site hardening). Violations trigger civil penalties ($1,000–$10,000 for the first offense), license suspension for the second, and license revocation for the third.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward regulatory measure that imposes security standards on a licensed industry (firearms dealers) to reduce theft and prevent weapons diversion to illegal channels. It is not a carve-out, subsidy, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- Compliance costs may disproportionately burden small independent dealers relative to large chains with existing security infrastructure, potentially accelerating consolidation in the dealer market.
- The Attorney General's authority to prescribe 'additional security requirements' by regulation (without further congressional approval) creates an open-ended enforcement and compliance-cost mechanism that could expand significantly over time.
- Theft from licensed premises is already a federal crime; this bill adds a separate civil-penalty regime that may create dual liability (criminal prosecution + administrative penalties) for the same conduct.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens benefit from reduced theft of firearms from licensed dealer premises, which can prevent stolen weapons from reaching criminals and the black market. Compliance costs fall on licensed businesses, not the public, and the bill includes a one-year phase-in period to allow adaptation.
Who stands to gain
- security system manufacturers and installers
- safe and vault manufacturers
- firearms dealers (reduced theft losses)
Named in the bill
Attorney General, federally licensed firearms importers, federally licensed firearms manufacturers, federally licensed firearms dealers, Section 923 of title 18, United States Code, Section 924 of title 18, United States Code
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 8 Democrats.
- Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $509,548 in lobbying spend. A filing names 88 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Brad Schneider, the sponsor, reported $1,440,249 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association for Gun Rights — $429,548 on 2 filings
- Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — $80,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,324 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-31.
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