Visited by the BATFE

[Xringshooter]

Had a no notice compliance inspection by the BATFE last week. The inspector went through everything; physical inventory of guns shown as business assets, inspections of both my bound book and my repair log, and cross checking my bound book entries against PICS approval numbers. All that and a boat load of questions, How many multiple handgun sales did you do? Where did you send the forms? Where are your licenses? Are they in plain sight? What's a straw purchase? What do you do if you suspect a straw purchase? What do you do if the PICS comes back denied? When do you log in guns you receive? How long do you have to show the disposition in the bound book when you sell/transfer a gun? How do you differentiate between business assets and personal assets? And on and on and on.

Good news however, he found absolutely nothing wrong with anything, no corrections to any of my answers, nothing wrong with my bound book (every t was crossed and i was dotted). In fact he really liked how I filed the PSP forms with the 4473 that it went with and liked how I filed my received copies of licenses from other FFL's (I get a lot due to the number of transfers I do).

He was completely professional through the whole inspection. When I met him, the first thing he did was to introduce himself and showed me his BATFE ID. He then explained what was going to happen and when and said he would ask me when he needed something. He was not condesending or overbearing, just matter of fact, "lets make sure you're doing everything that you are supposed to be doing."

At the end he gave me a bunch of ATF rulings, tips, procedures (to make sure I had the most up to date information, which I did already) and other stuff. He then asked me if I had any questions, which I did (I had a resident alien coming in to pick up a shotgun, and wanted to make sure I included the correct info with the 4473). He answered all my questions and made sure I understood his answers.

All in all, a very good encounter with the "jack booted thugs". We talked about this for a while, he gets a kick out of all the rumors of why so and so FFL got shut down. He said that if they close a FFL down, it's because of good and valid reasons, they don't just do it on a whim and not just because of slight clerical errors.

Oh, and by the way, the BATFE people in PA do peruse PAFOA quite regularly. He had nothing but good to say about the forum and the wealth of GOOD information that is disseminated. He did say that he liked how we will explain the laws to people when they suggest scenerios that could be classed as illegal. I asked, but he would not tell me the sections that they look at the most. I did not tell him my forum name, but I think he already knew

[MartinBrody]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Couple questions, was he wearing a suit like an old school G-man, or do they just go with dockers and an ATF polo shirt now? And what was he carrying?

[PaBimmerGuy]

they are watching you on the email.

[Emptymag]

Oh noze! We're bing monitored on our emails! LOL!

Good post. Interesting insights.



ETA: There's an echo in here!

[PaBimmerGuy]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Couple questions, was he wearing a suit like an old school G-man, or do they just go with dockers and an ATF polo shirt now? And what was he carrying?

atf inspectors are not law enforcement so they dont carry guns. my last inspector was an attractive young woman in a skirt and blouse.

[nathaniel.seacat]

atf inspectors are not law enforcement so they dont carry guns. my last inspector was an attractive young woman in a skirt and blouse.

I'm not law enforcement but I carry a gun?

[whoshisface]

My guess is they follow the nfa stuff. Mostly looking for people saying if you make a piece of metal shaped like this you get full auto. Since that doesn't happen here they probably just like hearing that we are educating people on the law. What I want is a cool upset of instructions on making my own firearm from scratch I think that would be a really cool and very expensive and as I've read it completely legal so long as its not nfa.. I thought about just making a steal XD9mm body and buying the whole upper part. Just for shuts and giggles

[Ricochet]

My guess is that the BATFE follows a lot of gun forums that offer a "classified" section to look for suspect sales or firearms.

Also, what are you as a FFL required to do if a PICS check comes back denied?

[HiredGoon]

...
Oh, and by the way, the BATFE people in PA do peruse PAFOA quite regularly.

I, for one, welcome our new BATFE inspector overlords.

[Gun]

Checks and balances are part of the job.