The ATF Comes Up with Another No-Brainer to Control Guns.

From 1977 until 2015, I held federal firearms licenses in 4 different states. These licenses allowed me to operate as a retail dealer, a whole distributor, an importer, and a manufacturer of guns. Altogether, probably some 20,000 guns were registered under the licenses I held for those 38 years.

During that period of time, probably somewhere around 4 million Americans were either or seriously injured by guns, of which I personally learned about one death — a suicide — and one injury — an accidental discharge — occurred with guns that had one way or another been connected to a transaction which I made.

Does that mean that I did everything as a federal licensee exactly according to the law? In fact, at one point the ATF cited me for extensive violations of the requirements which governed retail transactions because we abbreviated an entry on the 4473 background-check form, and abbreviations on the form constituted a federal offense punishable — ready? — for five years in jail.

Of course, had the ATF taken me to court and charged me with this violation, the presiding judge would have told the prosecutor to find something more serious to do with his time. Which, by the way, happens to be the reason why so many of these alleged ‘criminal’ activities by federally licensed gun dealers are never taken to…