ATF

Turn him in. If he is in another state, it is interstate commerce. He has taken your money and not provided the service you contracted for, so he is committing fraud. You can involve the FBI.

If you sent the pistol to him by mail, you can involve the postal inspector, because now it's mail fraud.

And it involves theft (unlawful conversion) of a firearm, so you can involve the BATFE.

Call them all.

BTW, you can't use an attorney in small claims court.

FWIW, a couple of years ago I had a somewhat similar experience. After several months, the shop stopped communicating with me and I wasn't able to reach either the shop phone or the owner's cell phone. When I got frustrated enough to do some Googling, I discovered that the shop was having serious financial problems and the owner had been charged with multiple instances of fraud.

In my case, I was fortunate enough to know a police officer, who (on his own time) called the police department in the shop's city. That PD sent an officer to knock on the owner's door and have a "come to Jesus" discussion about what could happen if I picked up the phone and called the BATFE.

About a week later I got a box, containing my firearm. The work I had asked to be done was not done, other work I had NOT asked for had been done, and the receiver is unusable. But I did get my stuff back. No point in filing a claim, because there won't be any assets left to pay me. It's a lesson for me, but I did get the satisfaction of making the guy take a dump in his drawers. And I could take my gun elsewhere if I decide to make it usable.
 
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since as part of a requirement for a ffl application is to be approved by a local sheriff or constable / police agency i would contact them first as they can retrieve the property or be present to make sure the property is returned. other wise they can pull his ffl. this is of course if he is illegally retaining your firearms. if its a matter of you owe him money and dont think you should pay because of bad service and or faulty workmanship that is more an issue for small claims / civil court.

without further background for one / both sides a proper course of action is hard to recommend.
 
I would not paint ATF with too broad a brush. We may all be law-abiding here, and in the safe shooting sports by and large. But there are rules, admittedly some better than others, and they need seeing to. We all hate red tape but that's not quite the same as bureaucracy.

I reported a little urban gunshop that was selling guns from their log book. But apparently sometimes not!
 
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A gunsmith or manufacturer cannot just hang on to people's money or property for overly-long periods of time. It's larcency or theft by conversion. If it becomes excessive - as evidently was the case with Jonathan Arthur Ciener, law enforcement will get involved - but not the BATFE.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=467757

It doesn't sound like your case alone is going to trigger a raid on the man's business, but I'm just pointing out that it's not unprecedented.
 
since as part of a requirement for a ffl application is to be approved by a local sheriff or constable / police agency
Click to expand...

The only requirement is that they are notified. The instructions to the local LEO on the application are:

"Information for the Chief Law Enforcement Officer
This form provides notification of a person's intent to apply for a Federal firearms license. It requires no action on your part. However, should you have
information that may disqualify the person from obtaining a Federal firearms license, please contact the Federal Firearms Licensing Center at
1-866-662-2750."

Also, the local LEO can not "pull" a FFL, they have no licensing jurisdiction over any FFL.
 
when i got my c&r ffl it had to be registered and approved by the local sheriff prior to me being allowed to commence buying firearms on my ffl. just like a gunstore that does not renew with the local sheriff will lose the ability to do business in that state until the paper work has the local sheriff signature on it.
 
I'd call the ATFE and FBI.


I had a similar problem to yours with a local smith. My interpretation of the situation was he was a machinist for a company with a pension who retired, it was a hobby and even though he quoted me two months he wasn't going to feel bad about taking 6-8 and not returning my calls in the meantime. He was about 80 so I felt like I was rolling the dice every day as it was. I rushed him and he did less than satisfactory work.

Most of the time if you use a well known gunsmith you aren't taking much of a risk. I sent a rifle out to a terminally ill smith who specialized in my rifle a few years ago and had my fingers crossed until I got it back. Can't imagine what trying to get it out of probate would have been like.

I pretty much only mail items out unless the smith says they can do the job same day. I just tell them, hey you give me a day to drop it off in the morning and I will come and pick it up that night and if you can't do that I will go somewhere else. Let them take a look at it to order whatever parts and if they can't get it finished I bring it back another day. I usually want simple machining done that isn't taking them a whole day anyways.
 
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