Readme.txt
Federal Firearms Licensee Database
Updated March 2013

The ATF Federal Firearms database lists all federally approved gun dealers in the United States. This version is current from the ATF as of 02/13. The database includes stores where guns are sold, rifle clubs, museums, pistol ranges and firearm manufacturers. The database includes the licensee number, license region, license district, license county, license type, license expiration date, license sequence number, license name, business name, premises street, premises city, premises state, premises zip code, mailing street, mailing city, mailing state, mailing zip code and telephone number.

After the Brady bill went into effect, licensees for dealerships became quite expensive and, consequently, the number of licensees has fallen noticeably.

Reporters can use this easy-to-analyze database to show where gun dealers are concentrated and who is selling weapons.

Note:  Some data are dirty, so be careful when analyzing.  For instance, some city names are misspelled, so if you look for licensees in Pueblo, Colorado, you�ll come up with results for Pueblo and Pubelo.  Same goes for Fort Lauderdale vs. Ft Lauderdale, Saint Petersburg vs. St Petersburg, etc. 


RELATED STORIES:

The Denver Post used ATF and other data for a number of stories than ran throughout 1999.  In one story, Killers� pistol akin to banned model, The Post became the first news organization to identify weapons used in the massacre at Columbine High School.  Subsequent articles found that guns used in the shootings had been sold at Colorado gun shows without the necessary paperwork or background checks.  In a December series called "The gun pipeline," reporter David Olinger and CAR editor Jeffrey Roberts focused on multiple handguns sold by licensed dealers.  The paper found that guns traced to multiple sales in Colorado ended up being used in homicides and armed robberies, the shooting of a federal agent and the near-fatal beating of a retired teacher.
(Story # 15828)

An ongoing investigation by CBS News in 1999 looked at the policies of major police and sheriff's departments across the country when it came to sales or trades of old service weapons. Using the Freedom of Information Act and various state public records acts, CBS collected documents and databases from more than 30 major cities and counties in the United States. The investigation found that some of America's biggest law enforcement agencies are also some of the biggest arms dealers. (Story # 16216)

TIPSHEETS:

	Tipsheet #1321 has six pages that explain how to track down guns, with examples from The Washington Post, the Associated Press and The Denver Post.  There�s also advice on covering guns in schools.  From the 2000 NICAR Conference.

	Tipsheet #1140 lists 10 tips for covering the gun issue as well as gun issue sources and facts, from Criminal Justice Journalists.  From a 2000 IRE conference.

BOOK:

	"Understanding Crime Statistics: A Reporter�s Guide" is part of the IRE Beat Book series.  It helps reporters find useful data on crime, then report it in a meaningful way.  For more information, see www.ire.org/store/books/crime.html/

IRE JOURNAL:

	"Guns: Tracing weapons yields startling results for press and public" is the cover story of the July/August 2000 IRE Journal. Available online at www.ire.org/store/IREJournalJulAug2000.pdf


To order articles, tipsheets or beat books, contact the IRE Resource Center at (573) 882-3364 or rescntr@nicar.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The ATF Disclosure Specialist is Peter Chisholm at (202) 927-2012

For questions about how the data was processed, contact NICAR at (573) 884-7711.