What gunstore would agree to this?
Store owner: So, you want me to sell guns to illegals, and you promise you won’t prosecte me?
ATF agent: Yes, we promise.
Who would go for that?
Store owner: So, you want me to sell guns to illegals, and you promise you won’t prosecute me?
ATF agent: No, we will prosecute you if you don't do it. And you better not run off to the press or to Congress about this either. Remember what we did at Waco.
Who would go for that?
That’s easy, someone already in a jam.
Someone they had something on.
That’s just they way they work.
Have seen the mafia do the same thing.
My landlord long ago got caught using a blackbox
to make long distance calls, the mob got him out
of it but then his Pizza Parlor became a strip joint.
A gun store owner being told “Do this or we either make your life so miserable that you will willingly give up your FFL, or we’ll just pull your FFL on ‘suspicion.’”
This agency has a history of not asking nicely.
They likely threatened to trump up some charges and shut the gun shop down. Even a siezure of inventory and suspension of license while they "conduct an investigation" can be the end of the business, and then there is the matter of recovering the inventory (IF the charges are proven to be baseless).
The attorney's fees alone can bankrupt the owner.