Posted on 03/16/2007 9:50:21 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
TWIN FALLS - Red's Trading Post, one of Idaho's oldest gun shops, can trade no longer.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has revoked the business's license to buy, trade or obtain guns after an ATF audit found Red's employees sold guns improperly numerous times between 1999 and 2004.
Red's manager, Ryan Horsley, admits when the business sold guns it sometimes left blank required parts of a gun purchase form, omitted a background check on a special order, failed to log multiple handgun sales to the same customer in five working days, did not keep track of guns returned to manufacturers, threw away denied applications dealers are required to keep for 20 years and failed to post a gun safety sign and pamphlets.
The ATF revoked Red's license March 5, shutting down 90 percent of the income that has sustained the store through three generations of Horsleys.
"They are taking very minor things and blowing them out of proportion," said Terry Horsley, the shop's owner and Ryan's mother.
The shop, at 215 Shoshone St. South, can sell the 1,000 guns remaining in its inventory, and can continue selling gun accessories and ammunition.
But accessories account for only 10 percent of its revenue.
"I'm just sitting here going, 'What am I going to do?,'" Ryan Horsley said.
The five-year audit found violations over a period in which 10,000 guns were sold, Horsley said.
"Mistakes happen. Stuff happens," Horsley said. "I think it's unreal expecting to have 100 percent non errors."
The bad news, which comes on the heels of record profits, could now close the store, Terry Horsley said.
Red's has paid $20,000 in legal fees protesting the ATF's decision. On Feb. 23, Red's legal team filed a petition in federal court in Boise.
The judicial review will consider, among other things, whether Red's "willfully" violated the law.
"'Not willful' is one of their petitions," said Deborah Ferguson, assistant U.S. attorney, representing the ATF's industry operations. "'Willful has been defined by case law. I would expect the court to look at that legal authority."
Case law defines "willful," an essential component of the allegations, as "they knew of the regulations and did not abide by them," Ferguson said.
Ryan Horsley said Red's was found responsible of several violations in an earlier audit.
But he said the infractions are petty and do not justify a revoked license.
"There's no missing guns," he said. "There are errors but everyone has errors."
Walt Sinclair, a Boise co-counsel for Red's, said the errors were clerical, not intentional.
He said it's not the first time the ATF has revoked the license of a Twin Falls gun dealership.
"Blue Lakes Sporting Goods lost its license," Sinclair said. "They had been there forever. It was a family business. It was a real success story, but this type of petty, technical noncompliance caused them to end up going out of business."
The ATF has 60 days from Feb. 23 to respond Red's petition.
The ATF Seattle Field Office spokeswoman declined to comment on Red's case until after judicial review.
"If the individuals reapply, the facts from the revocation would be considered for any future licenses," said spokeswoman Julianne Marshall. "Industry Operations will consider their application. However, they have an interest for public safety. This license was revoked for a reason."
A judge may still overturn ATF's decision.
The 90% figure is as contrived and cooked as the nonsense from The Brady Bunch. One in ten actual gun dealers did not go out of business over the past fifteen years.
oops, that should have read "Nine out of ten actual gun dealers did not go out of business over the past fifteen years".
need? what does need have to do with it? and what do you mean by real?
some of those people were people who wanted to be able to purchase firearms and have them shipped directly to their homes, not pay an extra $10-$50 to have it delivered to a dealer.
many of them ran their firearms business as a home based business. alot of them got jacked in various ways for it, so they dropped their license. others decided that the intrusion, and all the hoops they had to jump thru weren't worth it.
btw. do you NEED a drivers license? why don't you take a cab or a bus or walk or ride a bike? are you a real driver? do you drive a truck or a bus?
The paperwork isn't that onerous and zero defects is easy to accomplish. Failure to send in multiple purchase forms, fill out the whole form, and falure to have paperwork on stuff sent back to the distributor, or manufacturer over a lengthy period like 5 years, when it's been pointed out at least once things are bad, indicates poor organizational skills, if not an uncaring, or lazy attitude in the matter.
" What part of the word "infringed" in the Second Amendment do you find to be unclear?"
The Constitution gives congress the power to regulate business. These are business forms, and this is a store. The guy needed significant improvement in his organizational and accounting skills.
They changed the dealer license rules. They now require a fixed place of business, a store that conforms to local zoning rules. All those who had formerly sold from home, or other place of business as a secondary op, where not renewed.
The current AG's policy...
It does?
Please point to that provision of the Constitution that empowers the Federal Government to require a license to sell firearms.
Yes, they've been bad. Can't say they didn't give this guy at least one chance to clean up his act. Most dealers I know are consciencious aboout this stuff. for some reason, this guy couldn't clean up his act.
I see maybe six errors out of 10,000 sales, most of them paperwork errors.
STFU idiot.
It actually sounds like jack-booted thugs, from an overbearing, overzealous group of nothing more than armed tax collectors, are trying to ruin yet another hard-working American family running a small business selling perfectly legal products, and over what?
TECHNICALITIES?
The same "technicalities" that have resulted in BATFAG agents raiding homes and killing innocent (of any wrong-doing other than not paying a government-mandated tax, failing to jump through hoops in a confusing maze of nonsensical gun laws, or making TECHNICAL mistakes on a ridiculous number of required forms) American citizens.
Many remember Ruby Ridge, WACO, but have heard little or nothing about the countless other ill-conceived raids that ended up needlessly getting people killed.
If anyone has "effed up" in this, and MANY other cases, it is the BATF, and the liberal gun-grabbing politicians that have come up with the multitude of nonsensical, un-Constitutional gun laws now on the books in America.
so then, by your reasoning, the guy that lives down the street from me that sells vacuums isn't a dealer because he doesn't sell them thru a store?
or that amway/ alticor/ mary kay/ avon sellers aren't dealers because they run the business part time out of their home?
they do the same thing with other products that many of these once licensed gun dealers did with different products. maybe it wasn't full time, maybe it wasn't grand scale, but they sold and dealt in guns.
One of the motivations for holding the Constitutional convention, was that the Articles of Confederation did not provide for the regulation of interstate commerce. See Article 8 of the US Constitution, "The Congress shall have the power to... regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;"
Nice mouth! you kiss your mamma with that filthy thing?
I didnt read past your insult
I agree. Just make the rules follow the Constitution and stop changing said rules arbitrarily every other year.
This smells like a rail-road job by the BATFE from a mile off...
How in the HELL is the average small business (gun store) owner going to be able to afford to get the best employees, if all he can afford to pay is seven or eight dollars an hour?
I'm sure most of them are conscientious enough to try an hire the best people they can, but they are limited.
They should NOT be held accountable, especially to the point of LOSING their business, for mere TECHNICAL infractions, of highly convoluted government-mandated red-tape, committed by their employees.
The BATF's tactics are unconstitutional and UN-AMERICAN.
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