EXCLUSIVE: Texas Gun Dealer Sues Biden For Shuttering Firearm Stores Over Paperwork Flukes

A Texas firearms dealer is suing the Biden administration for weaponizing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to shut down law-abiding gun retailers over paperwork errors discovered during audits.

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice in June of 2021 to enforce “zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk,” but after a 500 percent increase in federal firearm license revocations for retailers over the last year, it’s clear the Biden administration isn’t just going after gun sellers who intentionally violate the law.

Punishing minor slip-ups, the lawsuit argues, draws on a drastically different interpretation of the law than the definition federal courts have held based on the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The lawsuit, to which the federal government has 60 days to respond, also argues that the Biden administration’s new policy sets an unreasonably high standard that is not applied to any other industry.

That’s why Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, chose to bring this case.

“There’s no business that you walk into today in this country where they don’t make a mistake,” Cargill told The Federalist. “Everyone makes mistakes. It’s not fair — it’s not right — to single out gun stores, which is what I see this current administration doing right now.”

Texas Public Policy Foundation

Cargill hasn’t been suspended by the ATF yet, but like every other law-abiding gun retailer, he fears he could be the next victim of the Biden administration’s anti-gun rampage. That’s problematic because not only does he sell guns, but he also offers safety and training courses for legal firearm owners.

“If we make a mistake here in the gun store, then they’re saying they can totally shut me down? That’s not right. We’re trying our best to do exactly what we’re supposed to do. We’re trying to dot our I’s and cross our T’s to make sure that we’re doing everything right,” Cargill said.

Cargill said he always contacts the ATF when he finds errors or has a problem because he firmly believes in operating up to federal standards. Siccing the ATF on law-abiding gun retailers like him over clerical mistakes that can be easily rectified, Cargill said, only damages that working relationship.

“The gun store is supposed to be the database for law enforcement, for the ATF. We’re supposed to work in partnership with each other, not at each other’s throats [as] enemies of each other,” Cargill said. “I should feel comfortable when they walk in to inspect us knowing that [if] they found something wrong, they’re going to guide us in the right. They caught it so we can fix it next time.”

Texas Public Policy Foundation

‘Willful’

In May of 2021, the ATF website clearly stated, “Some regulatory violations of the GCA pose inherent public safety risks and, when willfully committed, will result in ATF taking action to revoke the license of the offending FFL.”