A new federal regulation announced Thursday will expand the scope of which firearm sellers must acquire a federal license, closing the so-called “gun show loophole” that lets dealers and online retailers sell tens of thousands of guns every year without running background checks.

Under the new rule, any dealer selling guns that would otherwise require them to have a license if they were operating out of a brick and mortar store would now have to do the same, even if they are selling firearms at gun shows or from their home or car. Dealers who sell firearms without a license face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

What You Need To Know

  • A new federal regulation announced on Thursday will close the so-called “gun show loophole” that lets dealers and online retailers sell tens of thousands of guns every year without running background checks

  • Under the new rule, any dealer selling guns that would otherwise require them to have a license if they were operating out of a brick and mortar store would now have to do the same, even if they are selling firearms at gun shows or from their home or car

  • The Department of Justice believes there are more than 20,000 unlicensed gun dealers operating in the U.S., compared to over 80,000 licensed ones

  • The move comes as the U.S. sees north of 40,000 fatal shootings each year, including suicides

​​“I’ve spent hours with families who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence. They all have the same message: ‘Do something,’” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

The Justice Department believes there are more than 20,000 unlicensed gun dealers operating in the U.S., compared to over 80,000 licensed ones. The rule, which received backlash from gun groups when it was first proposed last summer, could face robust court challenges.

The move comes as the U.S. sees north of 40,000 fatal shootings each year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which reported 656 mass shootings in 2023, the second most in recorded history after 2021. The largest source of illegally trafficked firearms in the country is unlicensed dealers who do not conduct background checks, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives.

Last week, the ATF released new data that shows more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five-year period. The ATF report also showed that guns trafficked through unlicensed dealers were used in nearly 370 shootings between 2017 and 2021.

“Today, gun violence is the leading cause of death for the children of America -- not car accidents, not some form of cancer. Gun violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on a press call Wednesday. “Every year, thousands of unlicensed gun dealers sell tens of thousands of guns without a single background check, including to buyers [who], if they had been required to pass a background check, would have failed. For example, domestic abusers, violent felons and even children.

“In the years to come, I do believe countless families and communities will be spared the horror and the heartbreak of gun violence by this new rule,” she added.

Harris, who has taken the lead as the public face of some of the Biden administration’s gun violence initiatives, noted it has been 25 years since the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The shooters in that deadly massacre acquired guns by having a friend buy them from an unlicensed dealer who did not conduct a background check. She called on Congress to do what some lawmakers have repeatedly tried and failed to do since Columbine: pass universal background checks, red flag laws and a ban on semi-automatic weapons.

The authority to implement the new rule comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most comprehensive gun control legislation in 30 years that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 following a deadly mass shooting in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.

The 2022 law toughened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, sought to keep firearms from domestic violence offenders and aimed to help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier to take weapons away from people judged to be dangerous.

The new rule also expands the definition of dealers required to be licensed and run background checks to include people “repetitively selling guns of the same or similar make and model within one year of their purchase,” those who sell “firearms within thirty days of purchasing” or those selling firearms who tell “potential buyers that they can acquire additional firearms for that buyer to purchase,” according to the White House. The goal is not to restrict Americans from “making occasional sales of a firearm from a personal collection,” but to mandate background checks from sellers engaging in commercial activity and seeking profit.

“This final rule does not infringe on anyone’s Second Amendment rights, and it will not negatively impact the many law-abiding licensed firearms dealers in our nation,” ATF Director Steve Dettelbach said on the Wednesday press call. “They are already playing by the rules.”

The new rule is all but certain to draw significant pushback. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that the Justice Department received over 387,000 comments from the public during the process. A Justice Department official said that roughly two-thirds of the comments supported the rule, while around a quarter opposed. Public polling generally shows most Americans support stricter gun laws.

But advocacy and industry trade groups, such as the National Shooting Sports Foundation, opposed the rule when it was first proposed last August and threatened court challenges.