ATF Ends Controversial Gun Dealer Policy

Criminals get guns in a variety of ways. Rarely do they involve walking into a gun store and purchasing a firearm. They might get someone else to do it, steal them, or buy a gun stolen from someone else, but they’re not walking into the store, plopping down money for a weapon, then walking out with it.

And, for a long time, the ATF acted like they knew this. While they still inspected paperwork, those inspectors at least understood humans make mistakes and would direct the dealer to correct any errors.

But then the Biden administration came along and decided the ATF needed to treat FFL holders as the enemy, yanking their licenses over those minor paperwork errors. 

Those days are now over.

Just days before leaving office on January 20, the Biden Administration quietly reversed its harmful “zero-tolerance” policy of revoking federal firearms licenses from gun dealers for minor paperwork errors.

According to a report from Foxnews.com, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reversed the rule following a lawsuit filed by a Texas firearms retailer. That FFL holder, Michael Cargill, argued that the policy hindered the right to own firearms.

The lawsuit was filed with backing from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and America First Legal (AFL). The TPPF stated that random, honest mistakes, such as a buyer entering “USA” in the “country” field, have led to some gun dealers losing their FFLs.

“Many gun stores have been forced to close due to the illegal terms of the old enforcement order,” Matt Miller, a senior TPPF attorney and lead attorney on the case, told Fox News. “The new order effectively restores the old enforcement guidance, which means gun stores don’t have to live in fear of honest mistakes.”

First, yes, that’s the same Cargill that successfully sued over the bump stock ban. He clearly wasn’t done.

It also seems that the Biden administration made a strange decision in the waning hours of its existence.

It’s not that it was the wrong decision, only that it was the Biden administration that made it. Trump would likely have changed the direction anyway, so I’m a bit perplexed as to why they’d do it.

But I’m not going to expend too much energy on it. It was the right move, regardless of whoever made it. It was the right move and never should have been needed in the first place.

People make mistakes. These are good-faith mistakes that anyone can make, such as transposing a couple of numbers or something like that. People shouldn’t lose their livelihoods over those kinds of errors, but they were. 

It’s one thing if there are massive problems that can’t be good-faith mistakes, such as saying people bought guns they didn’t–a tactic I’ve seen used by a gun dealer selling firearms out the back door, who then put them on someone else’s paperwork–but these weren’t.

Now, our long national nightmare is over. FFL holders can breathe a little easier knowing that no one expect them to attain absolute perfection, that minor errors won’t end their businesses.

It never should have happened, but at least it’s over.