I guess I’ve bought too many guns, and came up on someones list. They were satisfied I was not dealing without a license, gun trafficking, etc. No I didn’t let them, and they sat on the porch sweating…
The lead guy made several comments about how they don’t keep records yet he had a ton of my 4473’s, my military records, pictures of my relatives, printed out list of guns Ive bought, NFA and who knows what else.
Didn’t like the fact I didn’t have a bill of sale for the few guns Ive sold FTF. Said I need to keep records, and I told him I wasn’t required by law to do so. He said he can type up a “cease and desist” letter, give it to someone, and it means they cannot sell any guns. Not as a threat to me but he said they often go to people’s houses, and they can’t show them any guns even though they’ve purchased several a month.
They were pretty nice, though, and part of the increased effort to keep guns out of Mexico. Id heard the ATF was “flooding” Texas so I guess it was my turn. Towards the end we were talking about areas to go shooting around here, and they said it was good I was a gun owner. They had come here when we were on vacation, and quipped about Fox News being on the TV…lol
Anyways not what I want to wake up to after 4 hours of sleep but it went pretty well, and everything is on the up and up…lol
I am sure they doing a legit job for a legit problem, and pardon me while I look for some tin foil, but that is scary. They have no records… Hah!!! I know’d it, I know’d it, I know’d it.
He even asked me if it was my writing on the 4473. They had a mix of 4473’s, and some sort of printed off spread sheet with guns Ive bought. I showed them what I have, and he was checking them off on his list along with the 4473’s. The few Ive sold I told him where they went. A couple FTF sales, a couple traded in, and a few sent to FFL’s. I told him I had the FedEx documents for the ones I shipped since I usually scan them, and send them to the buyer. I also mentioned I always use “their” FFL EZ check to make sure the FFL is legit Im sending it to. He seemed pleased with that.
FWIW all my purchases have been spread out over time, and location. The only guns they didn’t have a record for were guns I purchased FTF.
They didn’t know I sold any of them. The ones they had a record for but didn’t have I either sold or traded in.
What Im guessing they are doing is collecting 4473’s, and then creating a list to each buyer. Im not sure if there is a magical number of purchases one has to meet to get this type of visit but I guess I caught their attention somehow.
When we do nothing wrong we have nothing to fear… I am sure the sphincter tightened a little at first but it sounds like it went well in the end and that they acted professional and treated you as they should have.
I’m surprised I haven’t been visited yet… Maybe because I am in Pa and don’t have any NFA stuff. YET!
From my understanding they are concentrating their efforts in the border states. I think they even pulled agents from out of state to come down here.
He said they are targeting private sellers at gunshows who are operating a business but do not have an FFL. The guys with a table full of “private sales”. But no they didn’t seem interested in spending time on guys like me. I just showed them what I had, chatted for a few minutes, and they left. Im sure the heat helped speed up the process but I didn’t want them in the house with our dogs, and our twin 4 year old boys getting in the way.
Riiiiiiight… :rolleyes: Glad everything worked out but kind of odd having pictures of relatives and military records, obviously they’d done their homework. I feel much safer now.
I wouldn’t consider “less than 20 guns” to be high volume. How many people have more than 20 tools in their toolbox? How many have more multiple powered yard machines? How many have multiple sets of golf clubs? A gun is no different.
If someone has two of each gun, one that’s used and one in reserve, and they believe in having one of each type of gun (semi-auto rifle, bolt-action rifle, shotgun, semi-auto pistol, and revolver), that’s 10 guns right there. It’s really not that uncommon.
If you don’t mind my asking, if you left them on the porch, how did you show them your guns? I have this vision of you leaving them standing there while you went wherever and came back with a couple of guns at a time. I wonder if that made them jumpy?
