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The BATFE is after your firearms; ignore the facts at your own peril

Then they tried to impart a heavy tax on ammunition in an effort to make it too expensive to shoot (same tactic with cigarettes).  Then they tried to hold firearms manufacturers liable for the acts of scofflaws.  This was blocked by federal legislation.  Then they tried to legislate all sorts of schemes such as child proof trigger locks on all guns, bullet fingerprinting, electronic guns with fingerprint recognition, case fingerprinting, etc.  They have enjoyed some success here too.  Yet currently, 48 US states allow some form of concealed carry and about half of those states provide for some variant on non-concealed “open-carry”.

So you can see that the anti-gunners have had some successes but they are currently blocked or hindered in a number of areas.  Thus enters the 900 pound regulatory agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE also known as ATF).  Now this agency is supposed to be working for us, We The People, yet it is doing everything but that.  Since 2002, 85 percent of American firearms manufacturers have been forced to close their doors.  Additionally, from 1994 to 2005, 80 percent of firearms dealers have been forced out of business.  Who is doing this?  Your BATFE!  People, they mean to get your firearms!

OK, you do not have to believe me but do ask the Manager of Red’s Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho, Ryan Horsley.  The BATFE intends to shut down Red’s firearms sales in any way possible, including for trivial clerical ‘errors’.

Alright, you might discount Ryan as probably a gun nut and I know I enjoy popping caps when I get a chance, so we’re probably just producing too much testosterone (at my age I sincerely doubt it) right?  OK, but if you don’t believe us, you have to believe diminutive but thoroughly knowledgeable, Becky Hazen.

Mrs. Hazen had been in the firearms business with her husband, Floyd, for  some 32 years.  They owned the Blue Lake Sporting Goods store in Twin Falls, Idaho.  In September 18, 2003 Floyd passed away and in early 2004 the BATFE informed Becky that there were clerical errors in their 4473 forms and were going to have their FFL revoked.  Their timing is impeccable.

To show you that there has been a sea change in the way the BATFE does business, consider Becky’s statement, “In the 32 years I was involved in the business, I remember visits from the office of ATF as being helpful. They helped us setting up record keeping, kept us informed of new changes in the law and showed us what was expected.”  No more.  The BATFE has shamefully caused the closure of yet another gun dealer.

Becky has placed a letter to the editor in the Times News (magicvalley.com) which reads, in part:

No government agency should have the right to take away our right to do business. Without a gun license, we had no reason to continue our business. I believe fines and a chance to rectify the problems are in order, not revoking the license causing a long-standing business to fail.

In the 33 years Floyd and I ran Blue Lakes Sporting Goods, the ATF was an agency that helped businesses to comply with the laws but was never a law enforcement agency until recently. I believe government has been unable to take guns from the hands of citizens or sue gun manufactures out of business, so they will use government agencies to revoke licenses one at a time until there are no stores to buy guns. When that happens, the gun manufacturers will be forced out of business and the only way to obtain a gun will be person to person. Will that person get a background check? Will they ask if the buyer is a felon or has a history of mental problems? There will be no regulation of who purchases guns. Then where will we be?

I encourage every gun owner to step forward and let their senators and congressmen know how we feel about the ATF’s power to revoke licenses and close up businesses. The ATF should be stopped before there are no guns left to buy. Let your voice be heard.

Ryan says it well when he tells it like it is:

We not only lost a large voice {Blue Lake Sporting Goods} that spoke out about protecting our Second Amendment but we had also lost another small gun shop in what has become an agenda of the BATFE.  Shutting down gun shops for clerical paperwork errors and labeling them “willful” a word that Reagan and Congress put into the wording to insure that the ATF would not unjustly shut down gun shops.

To the ATF we are merely a number or a target but we are a whole lot more than that to our community, our customers, our employees and our families.  We have put our lives, finances and everything we have into these shops; yet all that comes crashing down when we become part of an anti-gun bureaucratic agenda.  God help this nation.

We must NOT put up with this crap from an agency that works for US, We The People.  In a previous post I suggested ways to combat these egregious abuses by Sullivan’s BATFE.  I am sure there are numerous other things we can do.  And do we must as THE BATFE MEANS TO HAVE YOUR MEANS OF SELF PROTECTION, YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHT, YOUR PROPERTY, AND ULTIMATELY THE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE.  Ignore the clarion call to action at your, your families, and your nations peril.  Get involved NOW!

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