Mayors Against Illegal Guns strongly opposes HR 2296/S.941, a bill that purports to support the "modernization" of federal law enforcement efforts, but in fact would undermine federal agents and local police as they continue their fight against illegal guns. Mayors Against Illegal Guns has written to Congress to express the coalition's grave concern about this legislation.

The provisions of HR 2296/S.941 constitute a flimsy repackaging of the provisions of HR 4900, which the House wisely decided not to act upon in 2008, and HR 5005 and HR 5092, which were defeated in 2006.

The coalition opposes many provisions of HR 2296/S.941 for a number of important reasons, including:

• HR 2296/S.941 creates an unnecessarily high evidentiary standard in licensing proceedings: In a revocation proceeding, this bill would require ATF to prove that a dealer knew the specific law he or she was breaking, a higher standard than is normally required in any civil or criminal case. First year law students are taught that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" - but under this bill, it would be.
  
  
• HR 2296/S.941 allows dealers to sell guns 60-days after their licenses are revoked: This bill loosens current regulations by saying that even after ATF revoked a license, the licensee would have at least 60 days to sell off its remaining inventory in most circumstances. This provision would aggravate an existing gap in federal law that has permitted law-breaking gun dealers who lose licenses to transfer gun into their private inventory and sell them off without background checks.
  
  
• HR 2296/S.941 blocks ATF from updating record-keeping: This bill prevents ATF from transferring records of gun sales made by law-breaking dealers from microfilm to fully searchable electronic databases.
  
  
• HR 2296/S.941 does not require federally licensed dealers (FFLs) to report multiple handgun sales to state or local law enforcement: FFLs would only be required to report multiple handgun sales to ATF. Multiple handgun sales records are a recognized sign of trafficking activity. ATF would be allowed, but not required to share these records with state or local law enforcement. Current federal law requires FFLs to report multiple handgun sales both to ATF and to state or local law enforcement.
  
  
• HR 2296/S.941 slants license revocation procedures in favor of law-breaking gun dealers: Under this bill, ATF would have to give a preview of its evidence to a law-breaking dealer before revoking its license, but the dealer would not have to give ATF a preview of its defense. Furthermore, if ATF’s decision is overturned on appeal, ATF would have to pay the dealer’s attorney’s fees.