New federal license required for firearm destruction businesses
S. 2088 — Firearm Destruction Licensure Act of 2025 · Filed by Adam Schiff (D-CA) · Introduced Jun 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires anyone in the business of destroying firearms to obtain a federal license from the Attorney General. It establishes licensing standards, reporting requirements, and penalties for unlicensed firearm destruction. It also creates a grant program to help state and local governments pay licensed dealers to destroy firearms using approved methods that render them permanently unusable.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to establish federal licensing and oversight of the firearm destruction industry, ensuring compliance with standardized destruction methods and creating transparency through reporting and public disclosure.
What the text implies
- The bill creates a new federal licensing regime that may impose compliance costs on small demolition, recycling, or scrap-metal businesses that incidentally destroy firearms as part of broader operations.
- Grant funding for firearm destruction may incentivize law enforcement to destroy firearms more aggressively, potentially affecting the secondary market for lawfully-owned firearms that are surrendered or confiscated.
- Public reporting of destruction volumes and methods may reveal law enforcement destruction patterns and capacities, which could inform criminal networks about enforcement activity.
- The 'covered method' definition requires complete destruction of all parts and components, which may prevent salvage or recycling of non-regulated components (e.g., springs, grips) that could otherwise be reused.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates accountability and transparency in firearm destruction by requiring licensing, standardized destruction methods, and public reporting. This prevents unscrupulous operators from improperly destroying firearms (e.g., selling parts or frames on the black market) and ensures law enforcement agencies and governments can safely and completely destroy confiscated weapons.
Who stands to gain
- Licensed firearm dealers offering destruction services
- Demolition and scrap-metal recycling companies with federal licenses
- Law enforcement agencies receiving grant funding for destruction services
Named in the bill
Attorney General, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Licensed firearm dealers, State and local law enforcement agencies, Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
Where it stands
- Jun 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 17, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the 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 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $550,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 70 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.
Adam Schiff, the sponsor, reported $54,400 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Semi — $470,000 on 1 filing
- Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — $80,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 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 (7,050 characters) on Aug 14, 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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