{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/new-senate-bill-would-boost-penalty-stealing-guns-ffl-licensees", "New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees", "2026-06-08", "2026", "2026-06", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Cindy Hyde-Smith", "H001079", "www.hydesmith.senate.gov", "hydesmith", "https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/newsroom", "scraper", "By Mark Chesnut\n\nFederally licensed firearms dealers have been getting hit hard by smash-and-grab thefts for years, with criminals targeting gun shops because the merchandise inside is worth significantly more on the black market than what most retail establishments stock. A Senate bill introduced this week aims to make that calculation considerably less attractive.\n\nOn June 3, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) Protection Act of 2026, legislation designed to substantially enhance criminal penalties for stealing firearms from licensed dealers. The bill has 18 cosponsors and the backing of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry\u2019s primary trade association.\n\nThe scale of the problem\n\nThe numbers behind the legislation are substantial. According to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives data cited in Graham\u2019s announcement, FFL theft incidents from 2021 to 2025 totaled 4,046, resulting in 23,319 firearms stolen from licensed dealers over that five-year period.\n\nThat works out to roughly 4,664 firearms stolen from licensed dealers annually, moving from legal commerce directly into the black market via criminal break-ins. South Carolina alone, Graham\u2019s home state, accounted for 618 stolen firearms from FFL thefts during the 2021-2025 window.\n\nThese aren\u2019t firearms that found their way into criminal hands through straw purchases, theft from individual owners, or any of the other diversion mechanisms gun-control advocates typically cite. They\u2019re firearms taken at gunpoint or by smash-and-grab burglary from the same licensed dealers Brady and Everytown spend their time attacking as \u201cthe largest sellers of crime guns.\u201d The actual sources of firearms entering criminal commerce are the criminals breaking into gun shops \u2014 not the dealers operating those shops legally.\n\nWhat the bill does\n\nThe FFL Protection Act includes several substantive enhancements to federal criminal penalties for FFL theft:\n\nIncreases the statutory maximum penalty for knowingly stealing any firearm from an FFL\u2019s business inventory from 10 to 20 years\n\nImposes a mandatory minimum sentence of three years for burglary from an FFL\n\nImposes a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for robbery from an FFL\n\nCriminalizes attempted theft of a firearm from a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector\n\nThe mandatory minimum sentences are the most significant operational change. Federal prosecution of FFL theft cases has historically resulted in widely varying outcomes depending on jurisdiction, prosecutor discretion, and case-specific factors. Establishing mandatory floor sentences ensures that criminals who specifically target firearms dealers face serious consequences regardless of where they\u2019re prosecuted.\n\nGraham characterized the legislation as a basic exercise in matching penalties to the actual harm caused.\n\n\u201cI am proud to reintroduce this important legislation to make \u2018smash-and-grabs\u2019 more costly for criminals,\u201d Graham said in his announcement. \u201cAmericans have a right to lawfully buy, own, and sell firearms; criminals who steal them must pay the price.\u201d\n\nNSSF backing\n\nNSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane framed the legislation as exactly the kind of focused criminal-penalty approach gun-rights advocates have been arguing should be the focus of federal firearms policy:\n\n\u201cThis legislation is what true gun safety looks like,\u201d Keane said in an NSSF news release endorsing the bill. \u201cCongress is sending a clear message that the safety of our communities is nonnegotiable and targeting firearm retailers to steal guns in order to commit further crimes is intolerable.\u201d\n\nKeane added a framing point that should resonate with TTAG readers familiar with the broader gun-control debate:\n\n\u201cThis legislation assigns the responsibility for crime where it belongs \u2014 with the criminal. These are real solutions that make our communities safer.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s the framing the gun-rights side has been pushing for decades against the gun-control framing that focuses on the firearms themselves rather than the people misusing them. The FFL Protection Act is exactly the kind of legislation that lands in the gun-rights framing \u2014 targeted criminal penalties for actual criminal conduct, with no impact on lawful gun owners or dealers operating legally.\n\nThe cosponsor list\n\nThe legislation has 18 cosponsors, all Republicans:\n\nTed Budd (R-N.C.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).\n\nThe all-Republican list of cosponsors reflects a recurring frustration with Senate dynamics on gun-related legislation. The FFL Protection Act is the kind of bill that should attract bipartisan support \u2014 it targets criminals specifically, enhances penalties for documented crimes affecting both businesses and public safety, and doesn\u2019t impose any new restrictions on lawful gun owners. The absence of Democratic cosponsors signals that gun-related legislation is now so politically polarized that even narrow criminal-penalty enhancements struggle to attract bipartisan support.\n\nThe broader policy\n\nThe FFL Protection Act fits into a broader policy framework that gun-rights advocates have been building out across multiple fronts. While Brady is suing the ATF to obtain records for public attacks on lawful firearms dealers, and Everytown is melting down over the ATF\u2019s regulatory reform package targeting administrative overreach against the firearms industry, Graham\u2019s legislation focuses where federal firearms policy attention should actually focus: on the criminals committing actual crimes.\n\nThe contrast couldn\u2019t be sharper. Gun-control organizations spend their resources attacking licensed dealers, demanding records to fuel public pressure campaigns, and supporting state-level legislation that imposes civil liability on lawful firearms commerce. Gun-rights advocates and the firearms industry support legislation that enhances criminal penalties for actual criminals committing actual crimes against firearms dealers.\n\nThe FFL Protection Act also builds on existing industry-driven safety efforts. NSSF has partnered with the ATF on Operation Secure Store, one of several industry safety programs aimed at reducing FFL theft through improved security practices, intelligence sharing, and law enforcement coordination. The legislation provides the criminal penalty teeth that complement those voluntary industry efforts.\n\nThe realistic prospects\n\nStandalone Second Amendment-adjacent legislation has historically struggled to pass even in Republican-controlled Congresses. The 2025 NFA tax eliminations passed only because they were packaged into the One Big Beautiful Bill rather than advanced as standalone legislation. Whether the FFL Protection Act follows that pattern \u2014 getting attached to a broader public safety or criminal justice package \u2014 or attempts a standalone path will largely determine its trajectory.\n\nThe legislation\u2019s tight focus on criminal penalty enhancements rather than substantive changes to firearms law gives it a somewhat better political profile than broader gun-rights legislation. It\u2019s harder to credibly oppose enhanced penalties for armed criminals who break into gun stores. Whether that political profile translates into actual passage remains to be seen.\n\nWhat this means for FFLs\n\nFor federally licensed firearms dealers, the legislation represents Congress finally addressing a problem the industry has been documenting for years. FFL theft affects dealer livelihoods, employee safety, business insurance costs, and the broader firearms market, all while moving firearms directly into criminal commerce. Enhanced federal penalties give prosecutors better tools to deter these crimes and ensure that criminals targeting gun shops face serious consequences regardless of state-level prosecutorial decisions.\n\nFor gun owners, the legislation is the kind of focused criminal-penalty approach that should be the actual centerpiece of federal firearms policy. Going after armed criminals who steal firearms is exactly where federal enforcement attention belongs. Going after lawful dealers, lawful owners, and lawful firearms commerce is where federal enforcement attention has too often been misdirected for the past several years.", 1, "2026-07-08T07:27:19Z", "2026-07-08T07:28:28Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/new-senate-bill-would-boost-penalty-stealing-guns-ffl-licensees"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.513974042609334, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}