Nearly 80,000 dealers, manufacturers, and importers are licensed to sell guns in the United States.79,292 licensed gun sellers

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives inspected an average of about 10,000 each fiscal year between 2015 and 2020, according to agency data.9,787 inspected annually

The ATF cited at least a third of them for violations, ranging from paperwork errors to selling guns to people barred by law from owning them.3,275 cited for violations

Of those cited, inspectors found that 3% – an estimated 106 gun sellers per year – met the criteria to have their licenses revoked, according to an analysis by The Trace and USA TODAY of 1,924 inspections conducted between 2015 and 2017.106 recomended to have license revoked

But officials ultimately downgraded more than half of those recommended revocations to lesser penalties, usually warning conferences. Ultimately, only half a percent of inspections ended in revocation. About 43 gun sellers lost their licenses each year.43 lost their license

This is the inspection report for Bradley Brown, a licensed firearms dealer in Yakima, Washington. Brown's store, Guns West II, was inspected in 2016.

Brown was cited for breaking numerous federal gun regulations. The inspection found 19 violations, 13 of them repeats from previous inspections.

One violation was for failing to respond to official requests for information. When ATF officials tried to contact Brown about a crime gun sold by his shop, he had pretended to be an employee and hung up on them multiple times, according to the report.

Brown was also cited for failing to report firearms that had gone missing from his inventory.

Brown failed to maintain a required log of firearm acquisitions and sales. The report notes that when asked why he was not keeping proper records, Brown responded, "I am busy, I don't give a shit."

Federal law requires gun dealers to report multiple handgun sales to the same purchaser over the span of five days. Brown told investigators that he would encourage customers to space out their purchases so that he could avoid the paperwork.

He was also cited for facilitating a straw sale, an illegal sale in which someone other than the gun's recipient filled out the background check paperwork.

The ATF investigator who led the inspection recommended that the agency should revoke Brown's firearms license.

A supervisor agreed that the violations met the threshold for revocation, but recommended downgrading the penalty to a warning conference, without providing an explanation.

The director of industry operations for the ATF's Seattle field division, who was responsible for the final decision, agreed with the lesser penalty.

The Trace and USA TODAY reviewed dozens of other cases in which the ATF let gun dealers remain in business after they met the criteria for revocation. ATF records indicate that Guns West II has since gone out of business.