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I know personally of a gunsmith operating from his home who was harrassed by repeated surprise BATF inspections until he finally gave up. (Cost me, too, because he was my smith and a damn good one.) This was triumphantly reported to D.C. as a small-time "dealer" (he sold no guns, the FFL was for shipping) now out of business and triumphantly reported to the country by the Brady Campaign as the street being safer because of it.

It's a corporate culture issue, IMHO, an assumption of "us vs. them" and it was fed by hirings especially during the notoriously gun-owner-hating Clinton administration. Many of these are now in positions of middle management and being federal employees essentially untouchable, and they know it.

One would not expect an inspector of the Bureau of Mines to hate miners and believe that there should be no mining done - he or she probably wouldn't get very far. A farming inspector who hated farms and farmers and wanted them all to go away probably wouldn't either. A BATF agent who hates gun owners and wants to make life as difficult as possible for them is, on the other hand, likely to be promoted. This is a pathological corporate culture.

Keep an eye on these people - remember the names. Should, God forbid, the Dems win big we're going to be seeing lots of them, and they don't like us.