ATF forced to reveal which gun dealers fuel crime—and how fast
H.R. 4174 — ATF DATA Act · Filed by Dan Goldman (D-NY) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 26, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the ATF to publish detailed, aggregated firearm trace data annually—including which gun dealers sold the most traced firearms, where those guns were recovered, how quickly they reached crime scenes, and patterns of trafficking. The data is meant to be public and congressional, identifying problem dealers and trafficking routes without naming individual gun owners.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to mandate public disclosure of aggregated ATF firearm trace data to expose trafficking patterns and identify high-risk dealers. It is a transparency and accountability measure, not a regulatory restriction on gun sales or ownership.
What the text implies
- Public identification of the 200 dealers with highest trace counts may create reputational pressure on those dealers and their communities, potentially affecting their business even if they are operating legally.
- Aggregated data on 'time-to-crime' (days from retail sale to crime recovery) may reveal trafficking corridors and source states, enabling state-level policy responses or interstate enforcement actions.
- Disclosure of privately made firearm (PMF) recovery data may inform future regulatory or legislative efforts to track or restrict unserialized firearms.
- Annual publication of trafficking investigation details (including methods like multiple-sales monitoring) may allow traffickers to adapt tactics to avoid detection.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens gain transparency into which licensed dealers are sources of crime guns and how firearms trafficking operates. This supports law enforcement, informs public debate, and creates accountability for dealers with high trace rates—without infringing on lawful gun ownership or privacy.
Named in the bill
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Attorney General, Department of Justice, Congress, Licensed firearms dealers, Law enforcement agencies, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jun 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 26, 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.
Dan Goldman, the sponsor, reported $407,029 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 full bill text on Jul 6, 2026; 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 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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