[center][b]THE DROP IN FEDERALLY LICENSED FIREARMS DEALERS IN AMERICA -- (Senate - September 26, 2002)[/b]

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  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, earlier this week the Violence Policy Center, VPC, released a new study entitled ``The Drop in Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers in America.'' It found that the number of gun dealers holding Type 1 Federal Firearms Licenses, FFLs, a basic license to sell guns, dropped 74 percent from 245,628 in January 1994 to 63,881 in April 2002 or more than 181,000. The State of Michigan experienced the third largest reduction in the U.S., a drop of 75 percent from 12,076 dealers in 1994 to 3,016 in 2002.

  According to the study, the decrease is the result of licensing and renewal criteria contained in the Brady Law and 1994 Federal crime bill. These changes were designed to reduce the number of private, unlicenced gun dealers who operate out of their homes and garages. I voted for the Brady Bill and Federal crime bill, and I am pleased that they appear to be working the way Congress intended. The study also suggests that enhanced enforcement and prosecution of gun laws at the federal, state, and local level have had a significant impact.

  The drop in gun dealers is an important step in the effort to reduce firearms violence in the U.S. But despite this decline, private, unlicenced dealers are still supplying guns to gangs, drug dealers, and street criminals. In light of their findings, the Violence Policy Center proposed several recommendations to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. One of the VPC recommendations is to close the loophole

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which allows dealers to shift firearms from their business inventory to their personal collections and then sell those guns without performing a background check. This proposal deserves serious consideration to evaluate whether it will help to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those prohibited under law from possessing a gun.

  I urge my colleagues to support commonsense gun safety legislation.

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What right says that the Federal Government can determine where a person chooses to conduct business?  Answer: NONE, ZIP, ZERO, NADA

why is the VPC continaully give such credibility? are there no firearms groups abel to counteract them?

Now look at the quote below from John Magaw, the last head of the ATF (may still be, I don't know).

The '68 GCA was advertised as job security for gun dealers.  The NRA favored the new regulations!  Now we see how this has been used, along with the newer '94 restrictions, to work towards the elimination of all FFL dealers through attrition and bureaucratic red tape.  The harder it is to get a license, the more it costs, the fewer will do it.  

And why is this a "great victory?"  There has been a subsequent rise in "illegal" gun dealing, which just stands to reason.  If you can't get a product legally, the demand does not disappear, it just shifts to the second economy (what statists call the black market).  As with recreational drugs, anytime a government bans something, it just creates an even bigger nightmare for everyone.