Ravenwood - 10/24/03 06:00 AM
This story is both tragic and sad.
Eight St. Louis area collectors were indicted Sept. 28 for "engaging in the gun business" without a Federal Firearms License. They are the latest victims in the 40-year battle over the fuzzy definition of who must have an FFL.The BATF is picking on senior citizens who sell a few firearms out of their collection, and profiting from it to boot. Claiming that someone need to be a licensed dealer to sell a firearm is akin to not letting people sell their car without permission from the almighty government. How many cars are sold by private owners through classified ads, and how many of those cars are used in crimes? But even that isn't really the point. The BATF is still on the Clinton mission of actively discouraging federal licensure of dealers, which means that private collectors are left with few options to divest their collection, and that a huge gray area is opened up between licensed dealers and private sellers. The BATF has even fought efforts to make the law less ambiguous, preferring instead to use the gray area as a tool for both gun control and to line their own pockets.Vaguely defined "unlicensed dealing" carries more severe punishment than some willful violations by licensed dealers - plus the potential forfeiture of every gun in a collection, and the loss of gun ownership rights, firearms hunting rights, and often even voting rights - for life.
In addition to the ruinous legal costs of fighting a felony offense punishable by up to five years imprisonment and $250,000 fine, the St. Louis collectors - five of them 60 to 79 years old - have had 572 firearms seized.
Just recently in my state the ATF did a raid and nailed a elderly man on illegal possession of 68 automatic weapons. He plead guilty to one felony and will do probation for 3 years. What I find funny is in the news article the Wichita Eagle reffered to the BATFE as "federal agents." I guess BATF is still a dirty word in the midwest.
Posted by: Rhett at October 24, 2003 12:53 PMPerhaps I am a little hard on them. The problem is that they are Dept. of the Treasury, and their main focus is revenues. They seem to try to pass themselves off as DOJ, as if that would make them less unpopular.
Posted by: Ravenwood at October 24, 2003 1:05 PMNo, Steve, you're not hard enough on them.
Instead of pursuing guys who sell guns out of the trunks of their cars in Chicago, they do things like spend months and big $$ going to gunshows, buying guns from retired guys selling off their collections so that they can get an easy, safe bust and conviction. Meanwhile they've not affected the gun trade to violent criminals at all.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at October 24, 2003 7:09 PMThat's not their mission. Their current mission is to discourage gun ownership, for which they are having some success.
Posted by: Ravenwood at October 24, 2003 8:34 PMBATFE are now part of the Justice Dept. Happened a couple months back.
Posted by: Kim du Toit at October 27, 2003 1:17 AMYou are correct Kim. I stand corrected.
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