ATF Moves to Revoke License of Gunmaker Tied to Jimenez Arms

(The Trace) – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is revoking the federal firearms license of JA Industries, a Nevada-based gunmaker that declared bankruptcy and rebranded itself more than once in an attempt to sidestep lawsuits and investigations over its alleged unscrupulous business practices.

The development was revealed in a March 30 letter by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is presiding over a lawsuit that seeks to strip the gunmaker of its license. The suit, filed in January 2021 by Illinois and Kansas City, Missouri, followed an investigation by The Trace and the Daily Beast that showed that the company, originally known as Jimenez Arms, had been repackaged to avoid lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. The ruling is a win for gun reform groups, which have been employing novel strategies to penetrate the gun industry’s special legal immunity to most lawsuits.