Washington in the current fiscal year that began last October has yanked 122 FFLs. According to the Wall Street Journal, that is up from 90 the previous fiscal year and only 27 in 2021.
Thus far in fiscal year 2023, the ATF has conducted 6,609 inspections of licensees. This is rapidly closing in on the total of 7,502 for last year. The current pace is 647.33 inspections across the country per month. That ahead of the blistering pace set last year of 587.66.
By the end of this fiscal year, the ATF will reach almost 9,000 inspections.
In 2020, there were only 40 license revocations nationwide. Another 96 FFL holders closed their doors or surrendered their licenses. The agency that year held 306 warning conferences and sent out 804 warning letters. These conferences are meetings between the FFL holder and the ATF’s Industry Operations Inspectors.
Now, however, many in the industry report that infractions as small as misspelled names and incorrect dates are being held over their heads like a sword. This, of course, is what happens when an administration campaigns for office on the platform of ripping apart the weapons industry through the power of the ATF.
Many in the industry say they are being unjustly persecuted as part of an overall agenda by the administration to stifle gun rights.
One gun dealer who lost his license after getting three legal warnings since 2009 is Anthony Navarro. He told the outlet that the government policy “is designed to be a backdoor violation of the Second Amendment.” While his business was bringing in $1 million per year before, “now it’s less than $100,000.
Navarro noted that the warnings came from errors on paperwork made by gun purchasers who were not blocked from purchasing weapons.
The federal action is making adversaries out of gun dealers who are key to alerting authorities about suspicious buying activity. Peter Forcelli is a retired deputy assistant director with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He told the Journal that “gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking.”
“Why are we now beating an ally into submission?”
The ATF countered that it is simply doing its job. Spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua told Fox News Digital in a statement that FFLs “are often our first line of defense against gun crime and are often a source of critical enforcement information that helps law enforcement identify straw purchasers and disrupt firearms trafficking schemes. FFLs that willfully violate the law, however, must be held accountable. ATF conducts inspections to ensure compliance with applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations and to educate licensees on the specific requirements of those laws and regulations.”
Gun store owners and operators, however, say they are doing their jobs in a climate of fear. A simple clerical error such as a line not filled in could mean the loss of their valuable FFL.
The ATF was once an agency that worked in conjunction with the firearms industry to ensure that manufacturers and dealers stayed within compliance with federal regulations. No more.
Now it is largely weaponized to target and eradicate FFL holders and thereby constrict the industry out of existence. Granted, it has far to go before this is accomplished. But never doubt that is the intent by many in Washington.
It is critical that FFL holders mount a strong legal defense against the powerful federal government. It is equally important that every tiny scrap of paperwork be triple checked for errors to not provide the ATF with tools to revoke these licenses.
