Congress toughens penalties for stealing guns from licensed dealers
H.R. 1773 — Federal Firearms Licensee Protection Act of 2025 · Filed by John Rutherford (R-FL) · 144 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill increases criminal penalties for stealing firearms from licensed gun dealers. It raises the maximum prison sentence from current law to 20 years, and adds mandatory minimum sentences of 3 years for theft during a burglary and 5 years for theft during a robbery of a dealer's premises.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to increase criminal sentences for a specific theft offense. It is a straightforward public-safety measure with no secondary provisions, riders, or policy complexity.
What the text implies
- Mandatory minimums may increase federal prison population and associated costs, though the offense is already a felony and the bill targets a narrow category of theft.
- The definition of 'burglary' in the bill (unlawful entry into dealer premises with intent to commit a crime) is broader than common-law burglary and may capture attempted theft or trespass with criminal intent, expanding the scope of the enhanced penalty.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Stiffer penalties for firearm theft from licensed dealers reduce the supply of stolen guns available to criminals, lowering the risk that weapons used in crimes originated from dealer theft. This is a straightforward public-safety measure with no offsetting cost to citizens' rights or protections.
Named in the bill
Federal firearms licensees (licensed importers, manufacturers, dealers, collectors), 18 U.S.C. § 922(u), 18 U.S.C. § 924, 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)
Where it stands
144 cosponsors: 140 Republicans, 4 Democrats.
- Mar 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 3, 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
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $7,820,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 22 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
John Rutherford, the sponsor, reported $521,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Shooting Sports Foundation — $7,820,000 on 4 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 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 (1,047 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
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