New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees

This press release from Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) was published on 2026-07-07 and titled "New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees".

New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees

New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees Monday, June 8, 2026 CG46414 Tuesday, July 7, 2026 The Truth About Guns New Senate Bill Would Boost Penalty For Stealing Guns From FFL Licensees By Mark Chesnut Federally 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. On 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’s primary trade association. The scale of the problem The numbers behind the legislation are substantial. According to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives data cited in Graham’s 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. That 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’s home state, accounted for 618 stolen firearms from FFL thefts during the 2021-2025 window. These aren’t 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’re firearms taken at gunpoint or by smash-and-grab burglary from the same licensed dealers Brady and Everytown spend their time attacking as “the largest sellers of crime guns.” The actual sources of firearms entering criminal commerce are the criminals breaking into gun shops — not the dealers operating those shops legally. What the bill does The FFL Protection Act includes several substantive enhancements to federal criminal penalties for FFL theft: Increases the statutory maximum penalty for knowingly stealing any firearm from an FFL’s business inventory from 10 to 20 years Imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of three years for burglary from an FFL Imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for robbery from an FFL Criminalizes attempted theft of a firearm from a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector The 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’re prosecuted. Graham characterized the legislation as a basic exercise in matching penalties to the actual harm caused. “I am proud to reintroduce this important legislation to make ‘smash-and-grabs’ more costly for criminals,” Graham said in his announcement. “Americans have a right to lawfully buy, own, and sell firearms; criminals who steal them must pay the price.” NSSF backing NSSF 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: “This legislation is what true gun safety looks like,” Keane said in an NSSF news release endorsing the bill. “Congress 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.” Keane added a framing point that should resonate with TTAG readers familiar with the broader gun-control debate: “This legislation assigns the responsibility for crime where it belongs — with the criminal. These are real solutions that make our communities safer.” That’s 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 — targeted criminal penalties for actual criminal conduct, with no impact on lawful gun owners or dealers operating legally. The cosponsor list The legislation has 18 cosponsors, all Republicans: Ted 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 (