Cana is a J.D. Candidate, Class of 2026, at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
This post is part of a series written by students in the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s The Second Amendment – A Modern and Historical Perspective class. The posts were written by students as an assignment for the class and edited by their professor, Jonathan Goldstein, in preparation for publication.
According to a recent inmate survey by the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 1.3% of prisoners serving time for crimes committed with a firearm obtained a gun from a retail source. Over 58% of crime guns are possessed by someone other than the person who purchased the gun. This suggests that most guns used in crime come from illicit sources like theft, private sales, unlicensed dealers, and straw purchases.
We live in a world of limited resources. If the goal is to stop gun-related crimes, why do we spend so many federal resources and political capital on laws that mostly affect law-abiding owners rather than on the people who actually supply criminals with guns? If we want to stop gun violence, we need to get at the root of the problem – illegal gun owners. One way to do that is to increase prosecutions for straw purchases.
A straw purchase occurs when one person buys a firearm on behalf of another person who is the actual intended possessor and lies about that fact on the Form 4473. To some, this may seem like a minor paperwork violation, but, in practice, it often results in guns landing in the hands of the wrong people.
Legislators have taken actions in the right direction, passing laws that increase the punishments for people who engage in straw purchases. In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which increased the maximum sentence for straw purchasing to 15 years and a $250,000 fine, and up to 25-years if the weapon is used to commit a felony, act of terrorism, or a drug trafficking crime. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) claims that they “aggressively pursue[] those engaged in straw purchasing.” But from June 2022 to July 2025, the ATF had only charged around 500 defendants under the BSCA. On top of that, a charge under the BSCA does not necessarily mean any given defendant will receive the statutory maximum — plea deals, guidelines calculations, concurrent sentences, acceptance-of-responsibility deductions, and judicial discretion all affect the actual sentence.
But prosecutors have not followed suit and increased enforcement efforts. For instance, in a recent straw purchasing case in the Western District of Washington, a 33-year-old man named Dion Jamar Cooper was caught illegally straw purchasing over 130 firearms. According to the U.S. Attorney, this made him “the largest known straw purchaser of firearms in the history of the Western District of Washington.” Fifty-four of the guns were used in crimes such as armed robberies, assault, drive-by shootings, and homicides, and occurred only days after leaving Cooper’s possession. He pled guilty to multiple federal firearm charges, including straw purchasing under the BSCA, but received a sentence of only three years.
In sum, publicity and harsh laws don’t necessarily translate into increased prosecutions. What’s happening is a mismatch between political symbolism and enforcement reality. Legislators get to pass laws and tout their “tough on gun” agenda. But on the ground, prosecutions are rare, and sentences are light, which means criminals quickly learn that the system rarely follows through. If policymakers and prosecutors are serious about reducing gun crime, the focus should shift from regulating law-abiding gun owners to focusing on increasing prosecutions for things like straw purchases. Both federal and state prosecutors should dedicate more resources to targeting straw purchasers and publicizing convictions to reinforce deterrence. If the goal is to reduce gun violence, we should be focused on consistently enforcing the existing laws that target the illegal acquisition of firearms rather than those that unnecessarily burden law-abiding gun owners.