3Įfforts to reduce gun violence that focus solely on the demand side of the problem ignore the role of the gun industry-manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retail gun dealers-in manufacturing and distributing the guns that are the instruments of this violence. 2 This violence persists, even as the number of Americans who choose to own guns has steadily declined. The United States experiences rates of gun violence that no other high-income nation comes even close to matching. The result of this constellation of weak laws, lack of resources, and dearth of political will to support gun industry regulation is that the industry that produces and sells deadly weapons to civilian consumers has operated for decades with minimal oversight from the federal government and almost no accountability in the U.S. Congress has also eliminated some of the most useful tools for ensuring that gun industry actors operate their businesses in the best interests of consumers and are held accountable for harm caused by their products. Adding insult to injury, Congress has also imposed restrictions on how ATF can perform this regulatory work through restrictive policy riders on the agency’s budget. The federal agency charged with oversight of the industry-the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)-has been historically underfunded and politically vulnerable, making it nearly impossible for the agency to conduct consistent, effective regulatory oversight activities. The laws governing the operation of these businesses are porous and weak. The gun industry in the United States is effectively unregulated.
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