The Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on federally licensed firearms dealers that led to the revocation of hundreds of licenses for minor paperwork errors has been officially squashed by the Trump administration, but for those FFLs who were targeted by the previous administration, the nightmare continues.
The owners of Clarksville, Tennessee’s The Tactical Edge say they haven’t had to close their doors since their license was revoked in 2023, but they’re barely hanging on while hoping that President Trump will give them some relief.
At the end of 2022, shop owners William Boswell and Robert Snyder told News 2 that the ATF found 10 minor clerical errors among the nearly 2,500 forms the shop had filed.
Snyder said they had made similar mistakes in the past and were always able to fix things without getting their FFL revoked. They decided to hire Nashville-based attorney John Harris to help them try to get a stay but to no avail.
“[We] just financially couldn’t afford to fight it anymore,” Snyder said. “The government’s got unlimited money. They can have an attorney in there every single day. We just can’t do that. It cost us almost $100,000 in legal fees.”
On top of that, Boswell and Snyder had to shut down their manufacturing facility, which is where they made the majority of their revenue. The duo said their business has been hanging on by a thread ever since.
“[We’ve just] been trying to do our best with [selling] accessories, gear — stuff like that,” Boswell said. “We have Fort Campbell right here, so we have a lot of gear and stuff that cater to the soldiers on post. Without the FFL, it has significantly cut down our ability to have an income here.”
If what the owners say is true, the ATF found problems with less than 1% of the paperwork Boswell and Snyder were required to fill out and used those “minor clerical errors” to declare that the pair had willfully violated federal regulations in order to strip them of their FFL. They weren’t accused of willfully engaging in straw purchases or selling guns off the books to illegal traffickers, which would be serious offenses that could not only result in a license revocation but criminal charges as well. But because of the Biden administration’s war on the firearms industry, Boswell and Snyder’s livelihoods are hanging by a thread.
In late April, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tennessee) sent a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi requesting a review of all revoked FFLs for gun dealers and gun store owners during the Biden administration.
“While I am grateful the Trump administration has ended this egregious and predatory enforcement, there are still hundreds of firearm dealers who had their FFLs unjustly revoked,” Green’s letter said. “I implore you to consider issuing an expedient review of all federal firearms licenses revoked under the Biden administration. In many cases, the Biden ATF revoked the FFLs of gun shops with little to no due process. It is time to make this right.”
In a statement to TV station WKRN, the ATF disclosed that it is “finalizing a new national policy to promote consistent, effective, and equitable responses to violations” of federal laws and regulations. The agency added that “any pending administrative actions against FFLs related to previous policies will be reevaluated using the new policy before a decision is reached on what actions, if any, to take in the case,” but that doesn’t provide much help for those who have already had their licenses revoked.
Rep. Green’s request to the Attorney General is a good idea, and one that the DOJ should implement as soon as possible. Restoring the licenses revoked over inadvertent clerical errors won’t make up for years of lost revenues, but it will at least allow these gun store owners to get back to the business of helping customers exercise their fundamental Second Amendment rights.
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