Posted on 02/25/2006 3:52:48 PM PST by berserker
Federal agents revoked the firearms license yesterday of a prominent Baltimore County gun shop owned by a National Rifle Association board member, pointing to his repeated failure to account for hundreds of guns listed in his inventory since 1997. "We don't want firearms getting into the hands of criminals," said David McCain, assistant special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "If we come in and find they're not complying with the regulations, we have to enforce the law."
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
We're not hearing the entire story. Something is going on here.
Sanford Abrams won't let them have the 4473 so they can collect the purchasers names and what was purchased so they want call the guns that were bought "missing guns." The BATF represents the Bush Administration.
There's also considerable evidence of harassment, and of the BATF going on fishing expeditions, something which they've long been known to do, even though they are only supposed to look at the purchase records when a gun is being traced in connection with a crime.
From the article:
The investigation that led to the license revocation started nearly nine years ago when, the ATF said, it found problems in Abrams' bookkeeping. In July 1997, agents compared the number of firearms listed in the store's books with the number of firearms on the premises.
The store came up 45 weapons short, according to agents.
After more missing weapons were identified after a 1999 inspection, the bureau held a "warning conference" with Abrams, who promised to improve record-keeping.
Agents returned in 2001 and noted 133 missing weapons. They held another "warning conference." Abrams again pledged to make progress.
Finally, in May 2003, an audit of Abrams' books found 472 weapons unaccounted for. The ATF issued a notice of license revocation in May 2004. In October, an administrative hearing officer ruled that Abrams' violations were "willful."
Note: an "administrative hearing officer" would be a BATFer, not a judge, and certainly not a jury.
The revocation was pending the outcome of a civil action - the store owner appealed the administrative ruling in court and lost (US District Judge William M. Nickerson, appt. by Bush in 2001 or so), and the BATF pulled the licence when the that ruling came down this week. Owner can be expected to appeal, but can't sell guns in the meantime.
Sorry, Bush I in 1990.
Interesting. Mr. Abrams does not appear on the 2006 Board ballot.
That may be because there are 76 directors? And not all are renewed, elected?
It's not for nothing that BATF are first thought of as the American Gestapo. Do you know the comment made by the Top US Marshal when he was told of plans to fold the BATF into the Marshal Service? He said: Know what you get when you mix clean water with dirty water? The answer is DIRTY WATER! That plan never went forward.
Gee, they were the Wounded Heroes of Waco....and it was never questioned that as soon as the siege was over they went in and bulldozed flat the entire compound, later announcing the find of a cache of full auto weapons and 50 caliber sniper rifles.....really.....you can trust us.....Of course we're not going to show them, just take our word for it..... And you think this NRA Boardmember is guilty....just like that?
Reading that judgment against the BATF by the Court certainly makes the issue of continued harassment of the dealer by the BATFE seem all too plausible. This time the civil judge was less sympathetic to the dealer.
The BATFErs seem to be up to their old tricks, in spite of the attempt of the FOPA of '86 to rein them in.
I'll give an NRA board member and vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association the benefit of the doubt over the BATFE any day of the year.
BATF appealed that decision and won at the Federal Appeals level - looks like a sympathetic panel:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=001777P
Remember the gun shop owner in Tacoma, WA who was the source for the weapon used by the DC sniper? He was never jailed, for all of the propaganda thrown his way, he came out of it without legal damage. The feds and the MSM like to overplay the story.
The 2006 ballot has 34 nominees, out of which, 25 will fill three year terms and 1 will fill a two year term. Info may be on the first page after the ballot.
I'm wrong. Look at page A. Under title of 2006 NRA Director Nominations.
An old bio:
http://www.nrawinningteam.com/bios99/abrams.html
Are you kidding? Between the various branches of the armed services and the federal law enforcement agencies, they lose many times 650 weapons per year, not to mention the crew served stuff that disappears and the explosives that meander away....
Oh. The page A that my elbow is resting on at the moment. That page A. Sheesh... ;-)
Sorry, I thought maybe you had a Rifleman magazine handy, that I was quoting from. I was the the NRA site and didn't find any handy list of directors. Rifleman magazine has 76 directors. By-laws require one-third of the terms of office of 75 directors shall expire at each annual meeting of members. One director will be elected for a one-year term.
LOL!
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