Just to be clear, I have no doubt this guy was acting like a dealer, buying and selling guns as a hobby business. The problem is that the BATF considers those two things incompatable — hobby and business. It didn’t used to be that way. Until just a few years ago, a person who wanted to take his collecting to the next level could apply for and receive a dealers FFL. With license in hand, there’s no temptation to skirt the line. There’s no need to mark “yes” that you’re buying it for yourself when you know it’s really a case of “hey, this is a good deal, I can make a few bucks on this.”
I see no evidence in this story that this guy was doing anything nefarious. They don’t claim he was supplying guns to known criminals, for example.
Yes, he may have sold guns to individuals without requiring a background check, but that’s what the law allows. No, that’s what the law specifies of non-licensed people. Had they just allowed him to have a license, none of this would have even mattered. He wouldn’t have had to falsify that one question on the form and he would have been running background checks on every sale. There, problem solved.
Of course, I’m just assuming he would have preferred to have a license, but I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t want one, given his level of activity.
I previously wrote: “Just to be clear, I have no doubt this guy was acting like a dealer, buying and selling guns as a hobby business . . . “
After further research (see link above), I no longer believe this guy was acting as a dealer. He was just a enthusiastic gun nut and buying and selling guns is just what he did. The .50 caliber rifle discovered in Mexico was apparently sold to a fellow law enforcement officer in a perfectly legal sale. It was THAT guy who was the dirty dealer.
This appears to be a case of abusive and unjust prosecution.