Daniel Webster, a professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, says whether a retailer decides to sell firearms to straw purchasers or not does impact the local gun supply.

“Some gun shops seem to be willing to either very intentionally engage in this sort of practice to expand their market, or they haven’t done their due diligence to care what was going on in their gun shop as long as they were making sales,” he said.

He also points out that tackling straw purchasing in a city is only a part of the gun supply problem — people who want guns but can’t legally own them can still steal them, get them from beyond city or state limits, or from online ghost gun vendors.

Past attempts

Everytown Law, a group that advocates for stronger firearms regulations nationally, is joining the city on the complaint. Their recent lawsuit against firearms vendors in Kansas City led to those businesses implementing policies to prevent straw purchasing, such as employee training, video recording of all sales, and a limit of one handgun purchase per person per month, according to Alla Lefkowitz, the group’s senior director of affirmative litigation.

Another defendant in that lawsuit received a notice of license revocation from the ATF, she said.

Targeting gun stores for allowing illegal sales has been successful in other cities. In Chicago, undercover police sting operations on specific gun dealers led to a 46% reduction in the supply of new guns to criminals, according to a 2006 study from Johns Hopkins University.

The same research team also documented an 82% reduction in how often guns from certain New York City shops were used in crime after law enforcement conducted sting operations there.

“Taking these kinds of legal actions with problematic gun dealers had a chilling effect on those problematic practices beyond the dealers who were sued,” Webster said. “The message is out there that we will test you. We will look to see if you are complying with the law. If you are not, you could face legal consequences.”

New Jersey is attempting to reduce straw purchasing by creating waiting periods between handgun purchases. Pennsylvania does not have such a policy, and Philly is prohibited from passing firearm legislation that’s stronger than what exists at the state level due to a preemption law.

Last year, the federal government intensified penalties for straw purchasing under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.