ATF Improvement and Modernization Act of 2025 or the AIM Act

This bill removes limitations on the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to conduct activities related to the administration of federal firearms laws.

Specifically, the bill removes provisions that

• limit the use of firearms tracing data;

• prohibit consolidating or centralizing records maintained by federal firearm licensees, or FFLs (e.g., gun dealers);

• prohibit imposing a requirement that gun dealers conduct a physical inventory;

• require background check records to be destroyed within 24 hours;

• limit the disclosure of data under the Freedom of Information Act;

• prohibit the ATF from altering the definition of or denying certain import applications for a curio or relic firearm;

• prohibit the denial of a federal firearms license due to lack of business activity;

• prohibit the electronic retrieval of information gathered from firearm transaction records of FFLs that go out of business;

• prohibit the ATF from denying an application to import certain shotguns; and

• limit the number of annual compliance inspections.

Additionally, the bill

• lowers the standard for denying or revoking a federal firearms license due to violations of federal firearms laws by requiring only a knowing violation rather than a willful violation, and

• removes the requirement that an appeal of a denial or revocation of a federal firearms license shall be subject to the de novo standard of judicial review (i.e., without deference to the agency determination).