{"id":1535945,"date":"2022-07-02T06:20:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-02T10:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1535945"},"modified":"2022-07-02T06:20:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T10:20:34","slug":"rep-andy-biggs-blows-whistle-on-atf-targeting-law-abiding-firearm-dealers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-andy-biggs-blows-whistle-on-atf-targeting-law-abiding-firearm-dealers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Andy Biggs Blows Whistle On ATF Targeting Law-Abiding Firearm Dealers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frep-andy-biggs-blows-whistle-on-atf-targeting-law-abiding-firearm-dealers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1535945&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) in a June 29 letter demanded answers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-atf\">ATF<\/a>) about a dramatic increase in Federal Firearm License (FFL) revocations since President Joe Biden took office, which he blamed on an \u201canti-gun agenda\u201d from the administration.<\/p>\n<p>To hold a FFL, licensees must undergo occasional inspection by the ATF to ensure compliance with federal law. In these inspections, some paperwork errors are common and to be expected. Historically, only major and intentional violations of federal law, or gross negligence on the part of the FFL dealer, have led to FFL revocations.<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, it appears the ATF has begun to change tack, dramatically increasing its revocations of FFLs for routine clerical errors and other minor mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>According to John Clark, a firearms industry expert whose firm FFL Consultants helps would-be FFL holders avoid an ATF revocation, the ATF announced at a recent Firearm Industry Conference that it had revoked 273 FFLs in the first 11 months of the Biden presidency. This figure represents a staggering increase of more than 500 percent in FFL revocations.<\/p>\n<p>Biggs, in a letter addressed to Acting ATF Director Gary Restaino, suggested that these increased FFL revocations by the ATF come as part of an anti-gun strategy from the White House, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The collateral damage of this effort, Biggs said, are the livelihoods of law-abiding gun shop owners and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the aggressive direction of the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,\u00a0Firearms and Explosives is currently undertaking a broad and unprecedented effort to\u00a0revoke Federal Firearm Licenses from law-abiding business owners throughout the country,\u201d Biggs wrote.<\/p>\n<h2>Revoked Under Old Complaints<\/h2>\n<p>Reportedly, many of these revocations have come after evaluation of previously-closed complaints against FFL licensees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn recent months, the number of FFL revocation proceedings initiated by ATF has\u00a0skyrocketed and ATF has reportedly adopted an officially sanctioned practice of basing\u00a0revocations on minor infractions discovered in previously-closed inspections,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cAccording to\u00a0business owners, these inspections, occurring six to eighteen months prior, often involved\u00a0clerical errors that were fully resolved and addressed by the businesses with no subsequent\u00a0infractions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe DOJ\u2019s efforts to force its administration\u2019s agenda onto ATF are particularly disturbing,\u201d Biggs continued.<\/p>\n<p>The anti-gun crusade by the administration, Biggs reported, has forced many ATF agents to carry out tasks that they think do not serve the public interest. In some areas, ATF divisions have even reportedly been placed in competition to achieve the most FFL revocations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocal ATF field agents have shared they feel pressured to take actions against individual\u00a0businesses that they do not feel are appropriate or in the interest of public safety,\u201d he said. \u201cSome have\u00a0even reported that ATF field divisions are being pitted against each other and being forced to\u00a0compete on the number of licenses revoked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ATF Directors of Industry Operations, who are in charge of\u00a0overseeing revocation proceedings, \u201care being told to press forward with this escalating quota system or face professional repercussions,\u201d Biggs reported.<\/p>\n<p>These efforts, Biggs said, are likely to have dire consequences both for the relationship between FFL holders and the ATF, and for the FFL holders who find themselves in the sights of this new quota system.<\/p>\n<h2>Destroying \u2018Trust and Confidence\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The increase in FFL revocations, Biggs said, \u201cis\u00a0rapidly destroying the trust and confidence ATF has worked hard to establish with the firearms\u00a0industry over many decades. This is the same trust and confidence that has historically fostered\u00a0open communications between ATF and members of the industry, resulting in voluntary\u00a0reporting of criminal or suspicious activity and frank discussions to help improve compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the lack of such an open and mutual relationship, Biggs suggests, FFL holders may find themselves less willing to report criminal or suspicious activity that could put them in the ATF\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n<p>But diminishing trust between the industry and the ATF is only one consequence of this new policy, Biggs said. It also has very real and visceral effects on individuals who find themselves targeted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis storm of increased regulatory enforcement is directed at the industry as a whole without\u00a0regard to the personal destruction wrought upon its individual members,\u201d Biggs wrote. \u201cIn addition to the scores\u00a0of innocent businesses at threat of being destroyed, we have heard that one licensee died of an\u00a0anxiety attack within days of receiving his final notice of revocation and another licensee\u00a0committed suicide during the revocation process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biggs went on to relate the ongoing story of one FFL dealership that has been caught up in the collateral damage of the policy.<\/p>\n<h2>The Case of Mr. Silencer<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOne business currently caught up in this regulatory whirlwind is Mr. Silencer, founded by Bruce\u00a0Stevens and his wife in 2010,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cThough beginning as a small startup, it has grown into one of the\u00a0largest firearms dealers in the state of Arizona. The Stevenses take regulatory compliance\u00a0seriously and, as their business has grown, they have implemented policies to ensure their\u00a0employees are well-trained and follow the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the Stevenses, in June of 2021, ATF conducted a routine compliance inspection of\u00a0Mr. Silencer and, as in virtually any inspection of a large dealership, discovered certain technical\u00a0or paperwork infractions that were within the expected scope for a dealership of that size.\u00a0Notably, per the Stevenses, all firearms were accounted for, there were no allegations of straw\u00a0purchases, and none of the customers purchasing firearms were prohibited persons. ATF closed\u00a0its inspection with a warning and took no further action against Mr. Silencer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNearly six months later, however, ATF changed tack and issued a Notice of Revocation,\u00a0effectively stating it was shutting down Mr. Silencer. Bruce Stevens requested a hearing and\u00a0provided testimony regarding the specific instances identified by ATF as supporting the\u00a0revocation. The strongest claims against Mr. Silencer related to two instances out of thousands\u00a0of annual transactions, for which the company had failed to conduct a NICs background check\u00a0prior to delivering a firearm to a customer. Bruce Stevens testified at an ATF hearing that both\u00a0instances resulted entirely from a glitch with his order management software and involved\u00a0situations in which the customer had actually undergone a recent NICs background check but not\u00a0for the particular firearm at issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBruce Stevens shared that none of the infractions identified by ATF were intentional, and,\u00a0according to him, the ATF hearing officer did not think they were. Rather, the hearing officer\u00a0simply stated that Mr. Silencer knew the law yet committed the infractions, and therefore must\u00a0have acted with \u2018plain indifference.\u2019 This determination conflicts with ATF\u2019s own findings in\u00a0its audit as shared with Mr. Silencer and the plain language of the Gun Control Act which\u00a0requires willful noncompliance before a license can be revoked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Silencer\u2019s case is not alone,\u201d Biggs warned. \u201c[The] ATF publicly announced at the April 2022 Firearms Industry\u00a0Conference that they were in the process of initiating 273 revocation proceedings based on cases\u00a0that had been closed since as early as July 1, 2021, even when the FFL has had zero compliance\u00a0infractions since their case was closed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pattern, along with the claim that ATF field\u00a0divisions are competing to revoke licenses, indicates a troubling trend of ATF attacking\u00a0businesses to advance an anti-gun agenda,\u201d Biggs concluded.<\/p>\n<h2>Republicans Side with Democrats<\/h2>\n<p>Recently, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats approved a bill expanding gun control and pushed it through both chambers of Congress in bipartisan votes.<\/p>\n<p>The bill, which represented a substantial shift on the part of its Republican supporters, did not go far enough for some Democrats, who have pushed for federal red flags laws and bans on so-called \u201cassault weapons,\u201d a catch-all term that proponents of such a ban often struggle to define.<\/p>\n<p>Any such legislation, however, would be all but impossible for Democrats to push through the Senate, where it would need the support of at least 10 Republicans to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it seems, Democrats have found a way to sidestep Congress altogether to enforce the Biden administration\u2019s anti-firearm policy goals through the DOJ, according to Biggs\u2019s assessment of the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Biden Administration continues to attempt to circumvent Congress in order to implement their radical policies,\u201d Biggs said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. \u201cThey know their policies are so extreme and unfavorable to the American public that they have no other choice than to take matters into their own hands. It smacks of authoritarian tyranny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy congressional colleagues and I will continue to hold them more accountable\u2014not only on this disturbing situation\u2014but on all of their attempts to bypass legislative authorization.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-joseph-lord\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) in a June 29 letter demanded answers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) about a dramatic increase in Federal Firearm License (FFL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1535945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1535945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1535945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}