The Brady Center has produced these special reports on issues relating to gun laws and regulations

Brady Report Exposes Gun Dealer Who Supplied Guns for Gangs

[image] Guns-For-Ganes ReportA new Brady Center report tells the story of Frank D’Andrea’s  Connecticut gun shop - “a convenient, one-stop shopping place for violent and prolific narcotics traffickers, convicted felons and other prohibited persons,” according to law enforcement.

D’Andrea’s gun store in the Bridgeport, CT area sold hundreds of guns to gangsters and drug traffickers and was cited for hundreds of legal violations.

Weak gun laws allowed D’Andrea to stay in business for more than two decades, until he was finally arrested and pled guilty to violating federal gun law.


No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools

No Gun Left Behind [report cover image]Guns in colleges and schools? Armed students? Armed teachers? That is the response of the gun lobby to the horrible massacre at Virginia Tech. Let's give everyone a gun and start the crossfire. The gun lobby is pushing legislation modeled after a law in Utah that prohibits colleges and universities from barring possession or use of firearms on campus. As a result of the law, 18-year-old kids could carry handguns to class, and kids even younger than 18 could possess AK-47 assault rifles with high-capacity magazines on campus. The gun lobby also wants to arm K-12 teachers.

The Brady Center's new report: No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools blows the whistle on the gun lobby's strategy and explains how, far from saving lives, it would dramatically increase gun violence risks to college students and trample on academic freedom. Drugs and alcohol use, and suicide and mental health issues all peak for people 18-24. Let's not add guns into that volatile mix. Despite the massacre at Virginia Tech, college campuses are safer than the communities that surround them, precisely because those institutions have barred or tightly controlled firearms. We need to support those institutions, not strip them of the ability to control firearms on campus. Arming teachers is also a bad idea. Do we really want teachers shooting at students? Even police officers hit their targets less than 20% of the time.

Shady Dealings: Illegal Gun Trafficking from Licensed Gun Dealers

Shady Dealings [report cover image]This report goes inside the gun stores to reveal the ways that licensed gun dealers enable gun traffickers to acquire guns for the illegal market over and over, through: large-volume sales of handguns, sales to the same buyer over and over, sales to straw purchasers, repeated sales of the same model gun, and sales to traffickers at gun shows. All of these mechanisms have clear red-flags for the gun dealer, yet the dealers completed the sales anyway. While the gunrunners in each case were prosecuted, the dealers remain open for business.

The NRA: A Criminal's Best Friend — How The National Rifle Association Has Handcuffed Federal Gun Law Enforcement

Criminal's Best Friend [report cover image]This report shows the National Rifle Association's claims that we just need to "fully enforce existing federal gun laws" rather than "passing new gun laws" to be utter hypocrisy. It exposes how the NRA has tirelessly worked to handcuff the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to prevent the enforcement of federal gun laws.

The NRA: A Criminal's Best Friend examines decades of concerted NRA action, illustrating how the NRA's campaign against federal gun law enforcers has made it far too easy for gun traffickers and criminals to obtain firearms. It reveals how the NRA has undermined ATF's ability to crack down on rogue gun dealers and prevent illegal sales at gun shows. It shows how the NRA has repeatedly attacked ATF agents for doing their jobs, branding them as "a jack-booted group of fascists" and comparing them to Nazis and murderers. It reveals the NRA's true colors, as a criminal's best friend.

"Trivial Violations"?: The Myth of Overzealous Federal Enforcement Actions Against Licensed Gun Dealers

Trivial Violations [report cover image]"Trivial Violations"? examines every published Federal court decision over the last five years — 21 in all — in which gun dealers challenged ATF's license termination actions. Instead of "trivial violations," as the supporters of H.R. 5092 allege dealers commit before having their licenses terminated by ATF, the cases are replete with frequent and serious illegal conduct by dealers, including:

  • Selling guns to straw buyers, and even advising criminals to bring straw buyers into the store to fill out the paperwork;
  • Selling an assault pistol with its serial number obliterated;
  • Selling guns to juveniles;
  • Having no record of sale for hundreds or thousands of firearms that were acquired by the dealer but were no longer in store inventory;
  • Failing to conduct Brady background checks on gun buyers.

Lethal Lou's — Profile Of A Rogue Gun Dealer: Lou's Loan of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

Lethal Lou's [cover image]Lethal Lou's exposes Lou's Loan's twenty year history of supplying guns used in crime. Lou's Loan of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania sold guns used in crime for over two decades, yet its license was not revoked by federal law enforcement authorities until this summer.

Drawing on exclusive interviews obtained by the Brady Center with a former employee of Lou's, a former gun trafficker who purchased numerous guns from Lou's, and law enforcement officials, Lethal Lou's chronicles how for years the shop sold guns to gun traffickers and straw purchasers, including Saad Abdul Salaam, who supplied a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Death Valley — Profile Of A Rogue Gun Dealer: Valley Gun

Death Valley [cover image]Death Valley profiles rogue gun dealer Valley Gun of Baltimore, Maryland. Valley Gun, owned by NRA Board Member Sandy Abrams, is one of the leading suppliers of crime guns in America, ranking 37 out of nearly 80,000 gun dealers nationwide in total crime guns traced to their stores. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has documented over 900 violations of federal law at Valley Gun, including illegal gun sales.

The report exposes how the NRA has come to Sandy Abrams' defense, providing him with an attorney to help him continue selling guns and re-electing him to its Board despite his many legal violations. The NRA is also lobbying Congress to pass legislation which would gut ATF's ability to revoke corrupt gun dealers' firearms licenses and allow shops with revoked licenses to continue selling guns through years of legal appeals.

Trading in Death — Profile Of A Rogue Gun Dealer: Trader Sports

Trading in Death [cover image]Trading In Death profiles rogue gun dealer Trader Sports of San Leandro, California. Trader Sports has been the second largest supplier of crime guns of any retailer in the nation. In 2005, 447 crime guns were traced to Trader Sports. Law enforcement has also repeatedly cited Trader Sports for massive violations of federal law, including failing to account for at least 1,723 guns reported as acquired by Trader Sports but missing from its inventory with no record of sale.

Trader Sports' federal firearms license was revoked in 2006, although the shop is challenging this license revocation in the courts. Trader Sports has also encouraged Congress to enact gun lobby-backed legislation that could allow the gun shop to continue operating, despite revocation of its license, through years of litigation.

Without A Trace: How the Gun Lobby and the Government Suppress the Truth About Guns And Crime.

Without A Trace [cover image]In the first report of Gun Industry Watch, Without A Trace exposes how the gun lobby, working with the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress, has protected corrupt gun dealers by systematically blocking the release of information identifying the gun dealers responsible for selling most of the crime guns recovered in America. Without a Trace explains the development and value of ATF's crime gun trace data - data which has established that strong gun laws have a profound impact on access to guns by criminals in the illegal market, and identified the gun manufacturers, distributors, and dealers most responsible for supplying crime guns.

Without A Trace exposes the gun lobby's efforts in Congress to prevent ATF from releasing any more crime gun trace data, thereby helping the gun industry cover up its participation in supplying the illegal gun market.

Documents Referenced in this Report

Forced Entry: The National Rifle Association's Campaign To Force Businesses To Accept Guns At Work

Forced Entry [cover image]Guns in the workplace? That is the goal of the National Rifle Association. The NRA is pushing hard to pass "take-your-guns-to-work" laws in all fifty states that would turn companies into criminals if they barred guns on their private property. The Brady Center's new report: Forced Entry: The National Rifle Association's Campaign To Force Businesses To Accept Guns At Work blows the whistle on the NRA's strategy and explains how it tramples property rights and the right of businesses to set the terms and conditions of work. It also conflicts with companies' federal obligation to provide a safe workplace. Gun violence in the workplace is a serious national problem. Forcing guns into that setting can only make the problem worse.

On Target [cover image]"On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Act,"

This report shows a substantial drop in the use of high-firepower assault weapons like UZIs and AK-47s in crime, despite industry efforts to evade the statute. It is the first report to determine the extent to which the effectiveness of the assault weapon ban has been undercut by gun manufacturers' efforts to evade the ban by developing and selling "copycat" assault weapons.

Smoking Guns [cover image]Smoking Guns: Exposing the Gun Industry's Complicity in the Illegal Gun Market

This report discusses previously secret gun industry documents, statements from industry whistle-blowers, and sworn testimony from a host of industry executives obtained in lawsuits showing firearms industry businesses have actively and knowingly allowed guns to be sold into the illegal market.

Guns and Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Our Weak Gun Laws

Guns and Terror [cover image]On December 19, 2001, The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a new report that details how terrorists use weak gun laws to amass firearms in the United States. The document, entitled: "Guns and Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Our Weak Gun Laws," was released at a news conference on Capitol Hill, at which Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called for stronger U.S. gun laws as a critical component of homeland security.

"This report makes one thing crystal clear: terrorists and guns go together," said Michael D. Barnes, President of the Brady Center. "Firearms are part of the essential tool kit of domestic and foreign terrorists alike. Guns are used to commit terrorist acts, and guns are used by terrorists to resist law enforcement efforts at apprehension and arrest."

Guns and Business Don't Mix: A Guide for Keeping Your Business Gun Free

When state law permits people to carry concealed guns, businesses have a choice. They can adopt a gun-free policy, prohibiting customers and employees from carrying guns onto company property, or they can do nothing and risk losing control over the safety of their customers and employees. This manual is a complete guide to choosing the gun-free approach, including state-by-state review of the steps required to keep your business premises gun-free.

Targeting Safety: How State Attorneys General Can Act Now to Save Lives

Targeting Safety [cover image]On March 13, 2001, The Legal Action Project released a special report, "Targeting Safety: How State Attorneys General Can Act Now to Save Lives" at a press event at the National Press Club. Many Americans do not know that guns made in this country are subject to no consumer product safety standards. In order to address this complete lack of consumer product safety standards, the Massachusetts Attorney General implemented the most stringent set of gun safety standards in the country - without the need to pass any legislation. The Massachusetts Attorney General was empowered by a state law modeled after the Federal Trade Commission Act, which allows the Attorney General to address unfair and deceptive trade practices, including unnecessarily unsafe products. The report, "Targeting Safety," focuses on this state law and the Massachusetts gun safety standards, and examines other states with similarly empowered state attorneys general and additional gun safety standards that state attorneys general can implement to make guns safer and help save lives.