Licensed gun dealers down 79%

WASHINGTON — Tougher laws and stricter enforcement cost nearly 200,000 U.S. gun dealers their licenses since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.

Led by sharp declines in states including Washington, California and Florida, the number of federally licensed firearms dealers fell 79 percent nationwide since 1994, after Congress adopted gun-control measures that still spark debate.

"The sharp drop in gun dealers is one of the most important, and little noticed, victories in the effort to reduce firearms violence in America," said Marty Langley, an analyst with the Violence Policy Center.

The decline is undeniable. What it means is more controversial.

"It looks good, but what they're doing is pursuing an anti-gun, anti-American point of view," said Bill Mayfield, a longtime gun dealer in Fresno, Calif.

In 1994, 245,628 U.S. residents held federal licenses allowing them to sell firearms. In California, the nation's most populous state, there were 20,148 license holders, and in Washington, there were 5,724.

Now, there are 50,630 of the so-called Type 1 federal firearms licenses nationwide. In California, the number of licenses fell to 2,120 this year. In Washington, the number was down to 857, a decline of about 85 percent.

The number of firearms licenses, likewise, fell more than 80 percent since 1994 in Florida, Louisiana and Georgia, among other states. Even the state with the smallest reduction in licensed dealers — Montana — saw a 68 percent decline.

The Violence Policy Center is a gun-control advocacy group funded by the Joyce Foundation.

The decline in licenses began after Congress approved in 1993 the so-called Brady Bill, named for former White House press secretary James Brady, who was wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. The 1993 law and a subsequent 1994 anti-crime law imposed new restrictions.

The firearms licenses that once cost $10 a year now cost $200 a year for the first three years. Applicants now must submit photographs and fingerprints and inform local police of their plans. In many cases, those losing licenses were "kitchen-table" dealers, who operated from their homes rather than from stores.

"Smaller shops simply can't afford some of that," said Ashley Varner, a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Nonetheless, Varner said Justice Department records indicate total firearm sales have remained roughly even in recent years.