WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brady, a nonprofit gun control advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit seeks to compel the ATF to release documents related to Demand Letter 2s.
Demand Letter 2s are letters sent by the ATF to firearms dealers who sell at least 25 guns recovered at crime scenes within a calendar year. Brady previously submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the ATF in February, seeking Demand Letter 2s issued to federal firearms licensees between 2017 and 2021 and during 2025. Democracy Forward is representing Brady in this legal action.
The ATF stated it is withholding these documents, citing that their release would disclose personal information, confidential trade secrets, commercial details, and invade personal privacy. The ATF paused the Demand Letter 2 program in June following criticism from firearms rights organizations, with the National Shooting Sports Foundation announcing the pause that month. Robert Cekada, ATF Director, wrote to Congress in a public statement that he supported the pause of the Demand Letter 2 program.
The ATF previously used information from the Demand Letter 2 program to trace over 190,000 firearms between 2000 and 2021. Brady has also obtained and published Demand Letter 2 data on its website in the past. Director Cekada and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche have stated their agencies will work to ease regulatory burdens for firearms sellers, manufacturers, and owners, and the ATF has proposed over 30 regulatory changes intended to reduce administrative requirements for them. "ATF's mission is to protect public safety and enforce the law, and these reforms reflect our commitment to doing that through regulations that are clear, legally sound, and narrowly tailored to that purpose," Director Cekada said.
Josh Scharff, general counsel and senior director of programs for Brady, spoke about the information sought. "This is information that will save lives. It is information that helps us be able to analyze how our government is regulating the gun industry, particularly the largest sellers of crime guns, and it's information that we need to improve public safety in this country," Scharff said. "ATF's decision to withhold these documents really can't be taken out of that narrative. It's impossible for us to ignore that this administration is doing everything that it can to cater to the gun industry and we believe that this is part of that pattern," Scharff said.
No independent assessment was available for this report.