John,

For years, Brady’s legal team fought in court to obtain over 30,000 pages of documents from the primary federal agency in charge of enforcing our nation’s gun laws – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) – and what we found was more damning than we imagined.

Rather than revoking licenses and stopping illegal activity to gun dealers who blatantly broke the law, ATF agents gave WARNINGS for: 

• Selling weapons to convicted felons
• Selling weapons to domestic abusers
• Lying to investigators on official reports
• Falsifying records to mask their unlawful conduct

Most of these dealers are selling guns to this day. These are crimes that blatantly violate our nation’s gun laws and dealers received a slap on the wrist. 

The bottom line? The ATF has placated dangerous offenses and bent over backwards to go easy on reckless gun dealers. This directly puts Americans at risk and makes it easy for guns to get into the wrong hands.

John, I know all too well how deadly this lack of oversight can be. My mom was killed by a man who went on to kill more people with a gun he got from a reckless gun seller that ignored our nation’s gun laws. This isn’t hypothetical – Americans are dying without the enforcement of our gun laws and we need to step up.

For years, the gun lobby has fought to limit ATF regulation and their deadly agenda – and it’s up to us to fight back. Because it is undeniable that the ATF is in desperate need of modernization and steady leadership. It won’t be fixed overnight, but we have the power to take a critical step toward a safer nation by confirming David Chipman as the agency’s first permanent leader in six years.

Right now, the Senate has the power to confirm Chipman but we need to show a groundswell of support behind his nomination if we have any hope of reforming the ATF. We are counting on 240 more supporters from your area to add their name to our urgent petition – and we can only keep it open until midnight TONIGHT: Please, John, will you add your name right now and urge the Senate to confirm David Chipman as the director of the ATF?

Thank you for raising your voice. 

Liz Dunning

Gun Violence Survivor

Vice President, Development

P.S. If you would like to read the full, scathing report, you can do so here.