New era at ATF? Agency shuts down cheap gun manufacturer in win for control groups
The nation’s gun regulatory agency took the rare step of revoking the license of an American gun manufacturer, a win for a gun control group that has dogged the company tied to illegal trafficking of cheap guns.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acknowledged in court Wednesday that it would revoke the license of Nevada-based JA Industries, LLC, a reorganization of Jimenez Arms, which has long garnered the attention of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates gun control.
Kansas City filed a lawsuit against Jimenez Arms in 2020 alleging the pistol manufacturer created a public nuisance by fueling illegal gun trafficking in the city with its low quality zinc alloy pistols that can retail for $150. The family of a shooting victim also sued the company.
Jimenez declared bankruptcy shortly after the suit was filed, then quickly obtained a new federal firearm license for the same owners in the same city.
That prompted extraordinary actions by Everytown, which bought up the entire inventory of Jimenez pistols and gun frames at a bankruptcy auction and had them destroyed.
The group then filed a separate lawsuit along with Kansas City and the state of Illinois against the ATF for awarding the new company a license – the suit that led to Wednesday's action. It alleged that because of false statements to the ATF and the unlawful shipment of guns to a gun trafficker, Jimenez was disqualified from holding an FFL.
“I think this is an undisputed important step toward shutting down a manufacturer that flouted federal law and facilitated gun trafficking,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. “It shouldn’t have taken three lawsuits to get ATF to do its job. I can only hope this marks a beginning of a new era at ATF where it starts to serve as a watchdog of the American people rather than a lapdog to the gun industry.”
Feinblatt said Wednesday’s ruling, in the wake of the $73 million Sandy Hook settlement against Remington Arms announced last month, mark a turning point in holding firearm manufacturers liable for gun crimes.
“Notice that many of these companies aren’t being held accountable by the ATF, but by organizations like ours that don’t want to see Americans killed by an industry that values profits over public safety,” Feinblatt said.
The industry is largely shielded from lawsuits stemming from shootings by the 2005 law Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the main lobby group for gun sellers and manufacturers, says the law is often misunderstood and attempts by President Biden or congress to repeal it would represent an attack, one that blames the industry for “the criminal misuse of legal firearms that are lawfully sold,” according to the group’s senior vice president Larry Keane.
Feinblatt said he senses a new tenor from what he called an anemic agency – charged with inspecting the nation’s 78,000 gun dealers, manufacturers and importers in the U.S. – and from the Biden Administration, which has asked DOJ and the ATF to crack down on gun trafficking.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul noted JA Industries pistols were previously barred from being sold in the state, but that criminals still brought them across state lines.
"Interstate trafficking allows them to reach the hands of young offenders – who are attracted in part because the guns are so cheap – to be used in carjackings and other gun violence," Raoul said in a statement.
A 2021 investigation by USA TODAY and The Trace found that despite repeated warnings, gun sellers and manufacturers have routinely been let off the hook. New data from the ATF shows revocations are exceedingly rare — only 40 in fiscal year 2020. The investigation found that revocations were rare even among those that met the agency's threshold after repeated inspections.
ATF spokesman Erik Longnecker said he could not comment on the revocation, which could still be appealed, but said that "ATF revokes federal firearms licensees who are found to have committed willful violations of the Gun Control Act and have an adverse impact on public safety. The vast majority of federal firearms licensees are law abiding businesses."
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas commended the agency's decision Wednesday and said it would help stop the flow of illegal firearms into his city.
“Jimenez Arms has caused significant harm to our community, leading to homicides, violent crime, and a number of shootings,” he said in a written statement. “Today’s decision is an important one for Kansas City, for the State of Missouri, and for our country.”
From 2014 to 2018, the Kansas City Police Department recovered, seized or held as evidence at least 166 Jimenez Arms guns, according to court documents.
In 2018, prosecutors charged Kansas City Fire Department Capt. James Samuels with gun trafficking in a ring tied to several cases. Court documents showed 57 of the 77 firearms trafficked were Jimenez Arms pistols. He pleaded guilty and last year was sentenced to six years in prison.
Paul Jimenez, president of JA Industries and the now-defunct Jimenez Arms did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday. The company has 15 days to challenge the revocation and request a hearing to appeal the ruling.
Jimenez has ties to Bryco Arms, and its president Bruce Jennings, a notorious seller of cheap handguns during the 1980s and 1990s, according to a report by The Trace. Jimenez worked as a longtime foreman of Bryco and created Jimenez Arms in the wake of Bryco’s 2003 bankruptcy.
Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact him at npenz@usatoday.com or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ATF revokes gun maker's license facing lawsuit over trafficking
