The ATF routinely smears those guilty of minor paperwork infractions as “rogue gun dealers.”
Kiloton Tactical is an upstanding firearms business in DeFuniak Springs, Fl. But it entered the crosshairs of the ATF in August when an agency industry operations inspector seized the store’s bound book and all ATF Form 4473s — complete with customer information — and took them off-premises.
The issue is, this action is quite illegal under federal law.
The statute specifically states that inspections permitted by law “do not authorize an ATF officer to seize any records other than those records or documents constituting material evidence of a violation of law.”
In other words, the ATF may not simply sweep up all documents and remove them elsewhere.
Citing clerical errors, the agency then issued a revocation letter to Kiloton Tactical. This became standard operating procedure in recent years when previously it took a serious infraction to lose an FFL. As it should be.
But in came Gun Owners of America (GOA). The gun rights advocacy group filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kiloton Tactical against the ATF, and the agency backed away from its attempted revocation of the FFL.
That did not stop the plaintiffs from continuing the legal action against the ATF. They now seek a preliminary injunction against future attempts to implement the zero-tolerance policy for the most minor of infractions.
A court ruling is expected in the coming weeks.
In its pursuit of “rogue gun dealers,” the ATF is in serious danger of becoming a rogue federal agency. It strayed far from its mission when it began yanking away valuable FFLs for what appears to be a political motive.
GOA and others fighting this federal overreach are to be supported and appreciated.
