The embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) established a “zero tolerance” policy in handling federal firearm licenses (FFLs) in recent years, which is coming to a welcome end.

Everyone who deals with the government knows the endless paperwork that must be sifted through and completed to comply with the law.

Now, apply that same byzantine process to gun dealers, and it is obvious what these law-abiding American businesspeople face.

Gun rights advocates note the policy was illegal under the Gun Control Act (GCS), which allows the ATF to revoke FFLs only for “willful” violations.

That and the Second Amendment, which not only protects Americans’ rights to keep and bear arms but to purchase them. 

That onerous predicament is apparently over, and not a moment too soon.

In its final days, the Joe Biden administration shelved the controversial policy of mandating inspectors yank FFLs for simple paperwork errors that could have been easily corrected.

This was not done out of any remorse for persecuting upstanding gun dealers but after a hard-fought lawsuit brought by a Texas gun store proprietor.

Michael Cargill is a stalwart defender of Second Amendment rights, and along with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and America First Legal, filed the momentous suit against the ATF.

The 2021 announcement of the new agency rule was defended as a way to fight violent crime. The administration claimed that FFLs could be revoked for “willfully” violating federal law, which on the surface appeared reasonable.

In practice, however, it quickly became something altogether different.

Second Amendment advocates cited numerous cases of simple and random mistakes in filling out the myriad federal forms used to drive an established retailer out of business.

For example, the TTPF noted that a gun dealer was punished for filling in “USA” when they misread “county” for “country.”

Such a minor and correctable error was then weaponized to revoke a hard-earned FFL.

In a statement, TPPF lead attorney Matt Miller noted that the zero-tolerance ATF policy was destructive to upstanding businesses.

“Many gun stores have been forced to close due to the illegal terms of the old enforcement order,” Miller declared. “The new order effectively restores the old enforcement guidance, which means gun stores don’t have to live in fear of honest mistakes.”

The TPPF attorney added that there are “100 different ways to make mistakes on paperwork” during a gun transaction. And while accuracy is always the goal, human error will happen.

Cargill correctly asserted that this approach would never be applied to a hospital.

“In this terminology, if we were to allow them to go in and inspect hospitals, and they say, ‘They made a mistake in the hospital.’ Whether it’s the doctor, the radiology, they made a mistake. We’re going to shut the entire hospital down. That’s insane.”

The Texas gun store owner observed that no other industry faces this type of illegitimate scrutiny.

The new guidance states, “For purposes of the regulatory provisions of the GCA, the terms ‘willful’ and ‘willfulness’ mean a purposeful disregard, a plain indifference to, or a reckless disregard of a known legal obligation. Willfulness requires fact specific application of the law.”

The policy further clarifies that small errors are not justification for life-altering acts by the ATF. “Not every repeat violation is per se willful. A single, or even a few, inadvertent eros in failing to complete forms may not amount to ‘willful’ failures even where the legal requirement to complete the forms was known.”

For dealing with constitutionally protected businesses that uphold and enable the free exercise of the Second Amendment, it’s about time.

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