By Lee Williams
While the world’s attention is focused on the horrific events unfolding in Eastern Europe, the Biden-Harris administration quietly unleashed hell on American gun dealers.
As the NRA first noted, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has started revoking licenses of gun dealers for the most minor paperwork errors – errors that never led to license revocations until Biden took office.
The move was intended to bolster Biden’s politically motivated strategem, which he first announced June 23, 2021, that “rogue” gun dealers are responsible for skyrocketing crime rates in large cities that historically have been controlled by Democrats. The “epidemic of gun violence” wasn’t caused by weak prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable, or gangs or underfunded police departments or by any combination thereof, Biden claimed. It was all the fault of “rogue gun dealers.”
Back then, Biden said rogue dealers willfully transfer firearms to prohibited persons, fail to conduct background checks, falsify records and/or refuse to cooperate with an ATF tracing request or inspection.
This week, The Biden-Harris administration added four more criteria to the rogue list – all minor paperwork errors: failure to account for firearms, failure to document a gun buyer’s eligibility, failure to maintain records needed to comply with an ATF tracing request and failure to report multiple handgun sales.
FOIA the FOIA
To vet Biden’s rogue gun dealer theory, on the same day he made his “rogue” speech, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the ATF, seeking the following:
Copies of documents that show the number of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and their state of residence, who have been prosecuted for willfully transferring a firearm to a prohibited person over the past three years (from June 23, 2018 to June 23, 2021.)
Copies of documents that show the number of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and their state of residence, who have been prosecuted for ignoring and/or refusing to cooperate with a tracing request from the BATFE, over the past three years (from June 23, 2018 to June 23, 2021.)
(Note: We did not seek the names or other identifiers of any FFL.)
The FOIA request would prove or disprove Biden’s claims, which everyone, even the ATF, likely knew were false. If the rogue dealers were responsible for the increasing violence, there should be hundreds if not thousands of prosecutions and subsequent FFL revocations. If Biden’s claims were false, there would likely be a half-dozen prosecutions in the entire country.
Four months passed without a word from the ATF — not even an acknowledgement they had received the FOIA request. Then, in October, the ATF finally admitted it had received the request, but warned it might take even longer to process.
“For your information, this office assigns incoming requests to one of three tracks: simple, complex, or expedited. Each request is then handled on a first-in, first-out basis in relation to other requests in the same track. Simple requests usually receive a response in approximately one month, whereas complex requests necessarily take longer. At this time, your request has been assigned to the complex track,” the ATF letter states.
The letter also provided the names of two FOIA liaisons, Darryl Webb and Zina Kornegay. Months of calls and messages left for these alleged liaisons were not returned.
In February, after another four months had passed, Kornegay finally answered her phone.
“I’m seeing a bit of back-and-forth,” she said of the request. “Let me look into this further. I will try and find out what’s going on with this.” She refused to say when the ATF would actually respond to the FOIA request. “Let me speak to my team leader,” she said. “I do see your request, but there seems to be some back-and-forth about the best way to handle it.” Kornegay was clearly alarmed by something she read in the FOIA file. She promised to call in a few weeks, but never did.
Now, nearly nine months after the original FOIA was filed, there has been no further communication from the ATF, so the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project sent ATF a second FOIA request – an attempt to find out more information about the kerfuffle our first FOIA request seemingly ignited.
Specifically, we requested copies of all internal ATF emails related to our first FOIA, as well as copies of all external emails the ATF received related to our initial request – for example, emails that may have come from the White House. We will publish any response we receive.
True intent
The Biden-Harris Administration clearly wants to revoke as many FFLs as they can. Their goal is simple and transparent: Fewer gun dealers will result in fewer gun sales. Like most of their anti-gun schemes, they did not take into account that criminals don’t buy their firearms from licensed gun dealers, they steal them or buy them on the black market, so the administration’s plan will only infringe upon law-abiding firearm purchasers.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
Elections have consequences. The only truth that asshole Obama ever told.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo true!
He told another truth, sometime or other. “If I had a criminal son, he would look like all those kids with pictures on the Post Office walls.” Or, words to that effect.
Truth
“If I had a son, he would be a criminal too.”
And stolen elections have disastrous consequences!
81 million votes! Nothing to see here…move along.
Stolen elections have the most painful consequences.
President Trump’s bump stock ban??? But yet most of you do not support having 200 to 300 million new machine gun owners in this country. So you have never really supported the repeal of the NFA or the repeal of the machine gun ban from the 1980s. You should still be satisfied when you voted for Biden instead of Trump.
Abolish rhe ATF. Repeal the NFA. Machine guns for all! FJB!
Right on! Get your RIGHT on!
It was either the so called POTUS DJT bump stock ban or it was adios binary triggers and a landry list of other items on the get list following Vegas.
Only one viable way to rid America of the Gun Control Act and that is to define Gun Control by its confirmed history of racism and genocide. Unfortunately pasty mouth gun owning bigots on this forum and elsewhere and the wimps who fear them are a wrench in the spokes.
If Gun Owners really want Freedom they better be able to properly define Gun Control as a history confirmed diaboical agenda that is not to be tolerated or surrender their arms and hide under their beds.
Biden was exaggerating the amount of rogue F.F.L holders but they do exist but not in the quantities Biden imagines. Biden would be better off pushing more for Universal Background Checks and Safe Storage laws because the black market is being supplied by used handguns and stolen guns. This is gun control 101 and even a simpleton should be aware of that as study after study has proven it for decades.
Fake dacian. Reasons like a moron.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Write a letter!
WWSCD?
What would Sam Colt do?
Just remember Sam knew to salt and burn the bones after!
DS,
That sounds positively Supernatural!
Federal Judge Strikes Down Stun Gun Ban
A federal judge struck down Rhode Island’s ban on stun guns and tasers, bringing an official end to the final statewide ban on those items in the U.S.
U.S. District Court Judge William Smith ruled that the state didn’t provide enough evidence to argue that a ban improved public safety; therefore, the ban violated residents’ Constitutional rights.
“The prohibition against the possession and use of stun guns set forth in [the stun-gun law] is an unconstitutional restriction of the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment in light of Heller,” the opinion read.
So if it did improve public safety it would be ok to violate the residents Constitutional rights?
Jackass left that door wide open didn’t he.
You saw that too huh.
Well we could all write FOIA requests for the exact same data or they need to be forced into court.
Although slamming them with tens of thousands of FOIA requests and clogging up their phone lines might be fun.
Biden uses War as Cover for Economic Chaos, Yanks are sure Gullible. FIFY
Wag – Dog
If you cannot play by the rules, then GTFO!
If you do not like the rules, then change the rules.
There are too many FFL’s “disguised” as transfer agents that are operating as gun sellers w/o having a brick & mortar gun store.
Fed…
Who cares? The government created an artificial requirement that guns be passed through an FFL if they cross state lines- whether or not the sale took place in the state the gun is destined for.
If some FFLs got a license just to fill that function, then great. The whole system is bull, but why should I have to subsidize a brick and mortar retailer as part of a purchase I made from someone in another state? If there’s an FFL who makes the process of complying with Uncle Sugar’s tyranny a bit cheaper than I’m all for it.
And what exactly is wrong with that? There’s nothing in the actual law that says an FFL requires what you might consider a “brick and mortar” store. I’ve known two kitchen table FFLs (one was actually a laundry room FFL) and they were good, honest people.
A E van Vogt insists on a brick and mortar storefront.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weapon_Shops_of_Isher
It’s a good read, if you haven’t read it already.
If I understand the FOIA law, ATF must fully complete a FOIA search within about 30 days, or notify the requester of a time extension based on criteria established by law. If ATF tries to obfuscate, there is an appeal process to the head of agency (maybe even the head of DOJ in this instance?). After that, SAF may file a law suit.
Based on the article, ATF grossly violated FOIA law by refusing contact for over nine months.
Now for some “insider” info on dealing with “rogue dealers”. Talking with the staff at the local gun range operator, an FFL can simply surrender its license, and apply for a new one…without any ATF inspection beforehand. Allegedly this does happen when the dealer gets too many “dings” and wants to avoid being “shut down” at some point in the future. So? Officially, the ATF could get credit for “shutting down a rogue dealer”, while at the same time that dealer can operate under a new FFL number. ATF would get the political win, and the dealer doesn’t really lose anything. In actuality, ATF could only win by seeking and prevailing in a criminal action against the dealer.
Attacking law abiding gun owners and dealers makes no sense.
“Attacking law abiding gun owners and dealers makes no sense.”
Depends on the goal.
I did not write that.
I guess you can use any screen name you want.
“I guess you can use any screen name you want.”
True, dat.
There is no name-to-profile check, apparently.
The second FOIA was a really good idea. The next step is clearly to sue AFT to have a judge force compilence. This is why SAF is one of the 2A groups I donate to and that mess with the “Violence Against Women Act” reauthorization is why NRA gets no money from me!
This action by the Commiecrat Party will certainly boost the black market.
MAKE SMUGGLING GREAT AGAIN!
[In memory of OG smuggler Mike Vanderboegh]
I have no idea as to what the conditions are to obtains a ‘dealers licence’ for firearms in the USA. But I’d point out the ‘conditions’ are ‘conditions’ and I presume that those conditions have been accepted for some time. The fact that it’s obvious that some off the moreee minor, and I suspect not, so minor have been ignored with apparent impunity is no reason that they can be ignored any longer.
If you could read English, Albert, you would have seen that the “minor offenses” include typographical errors on forms. It’s not our fault that you only read British Isles English, which has been corrupted badly in the last 200 years or so.
WAIT! I won’t entertain any defense you might try to put up for your corrupted English. Google it. US English more resembles the King’s English of the 1700s than your degraded gabble does. The whole lot of you need to go back to school, and learn proper English!
The book is over 500 pages. Even those with full time compliance employees can’t do it all.
Abolish the ATF. It’s a criminal enterprise.
“But I’d point out the ‘conditions’ are ‘conditions’ and I presume that those conditions have been accepted for some time. ”
Marking out side the line/box can be considered a violation of a dealer’s responsibility to submit/retain perfect, flawless background check records. In America, we are all about not letting perfection be the enemy of functional.
When we are using a printed form, we can either scratch-out and error, or throw the form away, and start over. The “starting over” for the FFL background check is not so simple. While it makes sense to scratch-out a mistake, initial the mistake, and enter proper information on a form, even that can be a reason for the ATF to suspend/cancel an FFL license; “the conditions” can be quite petty. IIRC, the gun store staff told me that such a discrepancy requires denying the purchase. Government “conditions” are not designed to prevent anything. The “conditions” are there to provide avenues of punishment.
This goes back a little while, IIRC in the 80s or 90s an FFL holder lost his license because he allowed those completing 4473’s to abbreviate the name of the County (using a commonly accepted abbrev.) where the transaction took place. The actual name is lost in the caverns of my brain, but I recall it being a long, commonly mispelled name when written in entirety. But it didn’t matter to the ATF, whose only purpose is to deny a license whenever possible, no matter if no one, by any stretch of imagination, could be harmed by an abbreviation.
“But it didn’t matter to the ATF, whose only purpose is to deny a license whenever possible, no matter if no one, by any stretch of imagination, could be harmed by an abbreviation.”
Government is never your friend. Rules, regulations, legislation are designed to generate criminals. Keep in mind that the Californication Supreme Court ruled that a law made impossible to comply with is not an invalid/illegal law. As Calif goes, eventually so goes the nation.
“I have no idea”
Just stop there next time All Hail.
Biden was wrong about rogue gun dealers with an F.F.L. as the main source of black market guns are un-vetted second hand guns and stolen guns that are the result of not having Universal Background Checks and Safe Storage Laws.
Universal Background Checks:
And when I say Universal Background Checks, I mean everyone needs to under surveillance by the state. The state needs to sit over everyone, monitoring everything they do, and what guns they have, trade, buy, sell. Essentially, it’s socialism, for guns. Basically, socialism is seizing the means of producing and distributing goods that is owned collectively. Now we aren’t there yet on the production side. But at least we can be there on the distribution side. Further, the only way, let me repeat, the only to enforce a universal background check, is to have to universal registry. It is simply NOT possible to enforce, without a registry. Because people could just simply claim they underwent a UBC when they bought a gun. If there is no record of it, then there is no way to check/enforce. Thus, when I say we need universal background checks. I’m also saying, yes – We need a universal gun registry. Now I know that puts a lot of trust in the government. Now, for some reason, I trust the government. But for some people who don’t (democrats who don’t trust republican governance, and republicans that don’t trust democrat governance), who cares about those people. There is simply no way, ever, the government, or a government agency, would abuse such a thing. History has proven this.
Safe Storage Laws:
Now, the reason I advocate for safe storage laws, is because other gun control laws implemented didn’t fully work. i.e. some people are still breaking those gun control laws! So I advocate to keep squeezing your freedoms, until I get the result I want. You see, my realizations of a safe and well controlled populace, is worth a lot more to me than freedom. Why have freedom when everyone can be safe, and controlled by the government? Haven’t you read that book – “The Giver?” That is almost perfectly what I want. Except for the ending of course. That guy ruined a good thing everyone had going.
The real albert hall.
fake dacisn post
^fake dacian.
1937.
FFL is another infringement on Shall Not Be Infringed.
“At this time, your request has been assigned to the complex track…”
On the plus side, your chocolate ration has been increased from 30 grams per week to 20 grams per week…
All I know is that every time biden says ‘gun’ a million more are sold.
Biden threatens China with sanctions.
That should work out just swell, I was tired of having stuff .
The goal of the current administration, and of the ATF is to shut down any FFL they can and find any way of disarming the populace they can. You can’t make serfs and slaves out of armed and more or less free peoples. Same reason the idiots are trying to force electric vehicles with limited range, and sky high fuel prices. Keep the majority of the populace as poor and limit free travel. Along with ignorant and dependent on government for security, food and any thing else they can. Which in turn keeps the self appointed political and economic elites in control and keeps a single party in power. The anti gun crowd are nothing but useful idiots for those who want to rule instead of govern by consent of the people.
So true
It will make law abiding citizens resort to buying stolen weapons on the street corners
Its to show their rabid leftist base they are “doing something!”
If a majority of our “elected things”, aka “congressional/senatorial critters” took their oaths of office at all seriously, that bit about “supporting, upholding and defending the constitution”, the anti constitutional firearms rights antics of the ATF/BATFE would long since have been squelched. That the above referenced antics of the ATF continue, all to clearly show how casually our “elected things” take their oath of office. A pity to say the very least.
I believe it was in 1993, that the ATF took it upon to whittle on FFL holders that didn’t have a brick n mortar store. In my hometown, approximately 30 Table Top FFL holders had their licenses revoked. At that point, unless you had an established storefront, you couldn’t get a license.
The next year, 1994, the Feferal Assault Weapon Ban became the law for the next 10 years.
So, is this a sign of things too come?
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