I wonder how soon they'll zero in on the C&R holders.
http://www.shotgunnews.com/knox/knox.dog?file=20000722.htm&tissue=2000072
Neal Knox Report
Collector Crackdown Coming
By Neal Knox
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 10)-There are signs that BATF-the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms-is making, and about to make, a major new assault against gun show sales. And, with steadily increasing resources combined with steadily declining numbers of Federally licensed dealers to "inspect" they're moving more into the realm of dealer harassment than ever before.
Some of this activity is legitimate-if unwelcome-enforcement of Federal laws that should never have been passed (which is why I shudder every time NRA says "enforce existing gun laws," without discriminating between laws targeting criminal misuse and gun swaps that most states consider lawful).
But, some "dealer oversight" over-steps BATF's lawful authority-which is anything but a new phenomenon.
For instance, BATF inspectors have no authority to copy sales records, but licensed dealers seldom object. Few FFL's can afford the cost-either the legal expenses or the risk of increased trace requests and additional inspections.
I recently talked with a dealer who is ready to go to court over unauthorized record-copying - for he wants to protect the privacy of his customers, and is properly concerned about being subject to a civil lawsuit from those customers if he doesn't.
In his case, the BATF agent had spent the better part of a month copying names, addresses and serial numbers into her laptop-which probably violates the prohibitions against registration in the amended Gun Control Act and every BATF appropriations law since I was NRA-ILA director.
Other dealers have told me they've been subjected to great increases in the number of costly trace requests, including guns bought and still possessed by law-abiding citizens.
The owner of one long-lived dealership told me he started getting an unusual number of trace requests on old purchases. His friendly agent suggested he could avoid digging into ancient files by getting a new license, and sending all those old purchase records to BATF-which he did.
The number of trace requests (without regard to sales volume) is the phony criteria being used to identify "bad apple" dealers now subjected to "enhanced enforcement." And traces can be used to cut off sales under the terms of the S&W-Clinton Administration agreement.
Just as BATF has pushed the envelope on gun law interpretation, so have gun collectors and traders-either out of ignorance, confusion or unwillingness to comply with pointless laws they consider unconstitutional.
For instance, an FFL I've known for years didn't want me to bother filling out a Form 4473 on a high-grade rifle I purchased at an out-of-state gun show.
A resident of a northwestern state showed me a fine U.S. Switch & Signal M1911A1 he had just bought at a Texas show. When I asked how he had possession, he "explained" that the GCA's prohibitions against interstate transfers no longer applied to collector handguns-and even more think they no longer apply to long guns bought or received as gifts from individuals.
They do.
Just how much confusion reigns among both dealers and BATF agents is indicated by an article and editorial in the June 5 Denver Post. It details the indictment last November of "Trader Jim" Gowda, an Arvada, Colo., FFL accused of selling eight guns without obtaining names and addresses, including to a felon and a Wyoming resident.
But BATF told the newspaper he had sold "thousands" of guns without paperwork at gun shows in various states, "hundreds" to "suspected criminals," and completed Form 4473's and NICS checks on only few.
Gowda says he was selling guns from his personal collection at the shows, and didn't believe federally licensed dealers had to document all sales.
Gowda and a partner were indicted in 1978 for dealing without a license and selling to a non-resident. He received pre-trial diversion after a guilty plea, and the indictment was dropped.
To "get legal" he obtained his FFL in 1980. In 1990 he was inspected. In 1996, BATF agents raided his home, seized all but four of 227 guns, claiming they were "improperly acquired." After three more years selling at shows, he was indicted in November.
His attorney says Gowda is a victim of a "changing climate" since the Columbine massacre. BATF's Denver enforcement chief says that the agency is now focussing on gun show dealers-and, inferentially, their buyers.
And in Illinois, the attorney general says U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is backing his $850,000 request for a Federal grant for a state "special unit" to investigate and prosecute "internet and gun show sales."
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 13, 2000).]
http://www.shotgunnews.com/knox/knox.dog?file=20000722.htm&tissue=2000072
Neal Knox Report
Collector Crackdown Coming
By Neal Knox
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 10)-There are signs that BATF-the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms-is making, and about to make, a major new assault against gun show sales. And, with steadily increasing resources combined with steadily declining numbers of Federally licensed dealers to "inspect" they're moving more into the realm of dealer harassment than ever before.
Some of this activity is legitimate-if unwelcome-enforcement of Federal laws that should never have been passed (which is why I shudder every time NRA says "enforce existing gun laws," without discriminating between laws targeting criminal misuse and gun swaps that most states consider lawful).
But, some "dealer oversight" over-steps BATF's lawful authority-which is anything but a new phenomenon.
For instance, BATF inspectors have no authority to copy sales records, but licensed dealers seldom object. Few FFL's can afford the cost-either the legal expenses or the risk of increased trace requests and additional inspections.
I recently talked with a dealer who is ready to go to court over unauthorized record-copying - for he wants to protect the privacy of his customers, and is properly concerned about being subject to a civil lawsuit from those customers if he doesn't.
In his case, the BATF agent had spent the better part of a month copying names, addresses and serial numbers into her laptop-which probably violates the prohibitions against registration in the amended Gun Control Act and every BATF appropriations law since I was NRA-ILA director.
Other dealers have told me they've been subjected to great increases in the number of costly trace requests, including guns bought and still possessed by law-abiding citizens.
The owner of one long-lived dealership told me he started getting an unusual number of trace requests on old purchases. His friendly agent suggested he could avoid digging into ancient files by getting a new license, and sending all those old purchase records to BATF-which he did.
The number of trace requests (without regard to sales volume) is the phony criteria being used to identify "bad apple" dealers now subjected to "enhanced enforcement." And traces can be used to cut off sales under the terms of the S&W-Clinton Administration agreement.
Just as BATF has pushed the envelope on gun law interpretation, so have gun collectors and traders-either out of ignorance, confusion or unwillingness to comply with pointless laws they consider unconstitutional.
For instance, an FFL I've known for years didn't want me to bother filling out a Form 4473 on a high-grade rifle I purchased at an out-of-state gun show.
A resident of a northwestern state showed me a fine U.S. Switch & Signal M1911A1 he had just bought at a Texas show. When I asked how he had possession, he "explained" that the GCA's prohibitions against interstate transfers no longer applied to collector handguns-and even more think they no longer apply to long guns bought or received as gifts from individuals.
They do.
Just how much confusion reigns among both dealers and BATF agents is indicated by an article and editorial in the June 5 Denver Post. It details the indictment last November of "Trader Jim" Gowda, an Arvada, Colo., FFL accused of selling eight guns without obtaining names and addresses, including to a felon and a Wyoming resident.
But BATF told the newspaper he had sold "thousands" of guns without paperwork at gun shows in various states, "hundreds" to "suspected criminals," and completed Form 4473's and NICS checks on only few.
Gowda says he was selling guns from his personal collection at the shows, and didn't believe federally licensed dealers had to document all sales.
Gowda and a partner were indicted in 1978 for dealing without a license and selling to a non-resident. He received pre-trial diversion after a guilty plea, and the indictment was dropped.
To "get legal" he obtained his FFL in 1980. In 1990 he was inspected. In 1996, BATF agents raided his home, seized all but four of 227 guns, claiming they were "improperly acquired." After three more years selling at shows, he was indicted in November.
His attorney says Gowda is a victim of a "changing climate" since the Columbine massacre. BATF's Denver enforcement chief says that the agency is now focussing on gun show dealers-and, inferentially, their buyers.
And in Illinois, the attorney general says U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is backing his $850,000 request for a Federal grant for a state "special unit" to investigate and prosecute "internet and gun show sales."
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 13, 2000).]