ATF Commerce in Firearms PDF Report (The War on the 2nd Amendment in the ATF's Own Words)

ATF Report ^ | February 2000 | Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

[Copernicus]

ATF Commerce in Firearms PDF Report

The Gun Control Act of 1968 established the first comprehensive Federal licensing system for importers, manufacturers and dealers in firearms to the retail level. That system requires licensees to maintain detailed records on transactions in firearms, and subjects their business premises to inspection by the ATF.

From 1968 to 1993, THE PROCESS TO OBTAIN A FEDERAL FIREARMS LICENSE WAS OVERLY SIMPLE. (emphasis added)

The annual fee WAS ONLY $10 for a license that authorized the person to ship, transport and receive firearms in interstate commerce and engage in retail sales. The statue required ATF to issue a license within 45 days to anyone who was 21 years old, had premises from which they intended to conduct business and who otherwise was not prohibited from possessing firearms.

The statute was designed TO LIMIT THE DISCRETION OF ATF IN DENYING LICENSES.

Over time the numbers of licensees began to swell until 1992 when the numbers reached over 284,000...............

In 1993, Congress increased the license application fee to $200 for three years.

Again, in 1994, Congress imposed requirements that applicants submit photographs and fingerprints to better enable ATF to identify applicants and new criteria that ensures that the business to be conducted would comply with all applicable State and local laws.....

From 1975 to 1992 the licensee population grew from 161,927 to 284,117...........

In 1993 and 1994, Congress added several safeguards to ensure only legitimate gun dealers obtain Federal licenses, including increased fees and certification requirements.

Following the ATF's implementation of those provisions the number of Federal firearms licensees DROPPED FROM 284,117 IN 1992 TO 103,942 IN 1999. OF THESE 80,570 ARE RETAIL DEALERS OR PAWNBROKERS.

[omnivore]

This is evidence of great evil concentrated in BATFE.

America should measure and celebrate its level of freedom and patriotism by how many gun dealers and gun traders it has!

To have the number of gun dealers be in any way be interpreted as a measure of something bad, rather than something good, rather than something to be proud of, is to buy into the propaganda spewed by the enemies of the American way of life. Which includes BATFE.

How can we get any of the Repub presidential candidates to propose zero-funding BATFE? Completely eliminating it from the federal budget, on the grounds that it is an agency which has been captured by enemies of America, and is completely beyond redemption. Because it is.

There's an easy way to save the taxpayers a bundle of money, and to fight against a stronghold of anti-American terrorism at the same time. Eliminate BATFE completely. Eradicate it from its pitiful bureaucratic existence. Zero-fund it. The founding fathers could never have imagined it ever existing in the first place. It is a nightmare of 20th Century Statism, an abomination in an otherwise relatively free America. It's time for BATFE to be eradicated. There is no place for BATFE to exist in 21st century America.

[sig226]

They probably excluded Curio and Relic licenses, who are not licensed to sell firearms as a source of income. A friend of mine bought a machine to put jackets on bullets. He says he has to get an FFL as an ammunition manufacturer to do this, even if he only intends to use the bullets for his own reloading. He also has a Dillon 550B, which he uses to crank out thousands of rounds for personal consumption. This does not require an FFL.

If this makes absolutely no sense to you, then you are beginning to understand the maze of firearms laws in this country.

[sig226]

In the interests of accuracy, the scumbags that exploded the bomb at the World Trade Center had an FFL. Of course, they used a shill to get it in the same way organized crime uses shills to work casinos and racing ventures.

Liberal caterwauling about FFL availability will never be rational, but we should be aware of the talking points they use when confronted.

[ctdonath2]

How can we get any of the Repub presidential candidates to propose zero-funding BATFE?

"Loose lips sink ships."

De-funding the BATFE would end the firearms industry in this country. Legally, you can't do business therein without BATFE approving assorted paperwork. That means no retail gun sales, no ammo, no nuthin' new. Private sales would continue, but ammo supplies would dry up fast, starving what's out there.

Crap, I think you inadvertently just tried to hand the Brady Bunch their entire set of goals on a silver platter.

[ctdonath2]

You want confusing?

In NY, a rifle is legally NOT a firearm.

[sig226]

The federal law, the 1968 Gun Control Act, requires all people who sell guns for profit to obtain the Federal Firearms License - FFL. Anyone who buys a gun from an FFL has to complete form 4473, which is a long list of qualifiers and identifiers. The buyer signs the form, thus swearing an oath that his statements are truthful. False swearing on this form is a federal perjury. Of course, almost no one is prosecuted for this although according to the Brady Campaign, there are thousands of illegal sales every day.

The instant check law (I forget the correct name for the act) requires each FFL to run a criminal background check for each buyer. The exact nature of the check is left to the state. Some states use the FBI, others have their own systems. They can charge for it, so it isn't an unfunded mandate.

The 1968 Gun Control Act made it a federal crime to sell any firearm to a person who resides in another state. This means there are no private sales of firearms across state lines, and the feds thus put themselves out of the firearm private sale business due to the commerce clause in the constitution.

Some states have a firearms purchaser card, required to buy any gun. New Jersey, Illinois, and Hawaii are examples. In these states, the buyer and seller have to complete some paperwork and possibly register the sale with the state. Most states do not require this, so if you want to buy your friend's gun in Texas, you give him the money.

[DocH]

In the interests of accuracy, the scumbags that exploded the bomb at the World Trade Center had an FFL.

I never heard or read this little "gem", and I'm not sure, depending on where I read it, if I'd believe it. It sounds like the other, post-911 scare-the-public-into-more-gun-control propaganda, along the lines of the supposed words in the Al Qaeda training manual found (fellow Jihadists - you must buy your guns at American gun shows - or something to that RIDICULOUS effect), and the propaganda concerning terrorists wanting to buy .50 cal SEMI-auto firearms to attack our infrastructure and planes.

True or not though, you help make my point.

What did those terrorists do with that FFL, if they actually had one (they sure didn't need it to buy box-cutters)? It's likely they did nothing that put any Americans in danger on any scale to speak of, and certainly not much more than your average street gang that can acquire guns in more creative ways than can be imagined.

I think we have MUCH more to worry about as far as terrorists getting and using bombs & missiles (like the planes that flew into the towers), and weapons grade bio and chem weapons.

FFL or no FFL, terrorists, like criminals, are going to get firearms, but they are looking for MASS casualties, with the resultant panic and fear instilled in the general populace.

Besides, they learned YEARS ago, that attacks on Israelis with mere firearms, even fully automatic weapons, does not get the desired result. They now use infinitely more effective means and tactics like human homicide bombers.

[sig226]

That's because they have the Sullivan Act, which was designed to prevent all those awful minorities from getting their hands on nasty little handguns, which are bad. The Sullivan Act requires each applicant for a handgun permit to appear before a judge. This is so that even if the applicant somehow managed to bribe or con the local police into issuing the permit, the judge would make sure that black heroin addicts, Irish drunks, Italian gangsters, and Jewish diamond merchants would not get those horrible pistoles. If you want to study the codification of bigotry in The United States, start with the Sullivan Act and its supporters. They are just as bad now as they were when the thing was passed almost 100 years ago.

[robertpaulsen]

"Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the people with FFLs who do not engage in storefront sales are harming anyone in any fashion whatsoever (aside from making Brady et al. nervous, of course)?"

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the people who drink and drive are harming anyone in any fashion whatsoever (aside from making other drivers nervous, of course)?

[Joe Brower]

[Wonder Warthog]

"Federal Firearms Licenses have nothing to do with possession, shooting, carry, etc. FFL holders are firearms dealers, either in the traditional retail trade or pawnbrokers who have reason to sell firearms that were pawned but not redeemed."

A LOT of folks bought and sold guns in other than the "traditional retail trade". They got FFL's so they and a few friends could get guns wholesale. Completely honest and legit folks. The ONLY purpose of the BATF**KS is to make it more and more difficult for honest citizens to buy firearms. The already know that there is NO way to keep criminals from getting arms.

[absolootezer0]

why would a terrorist buy guns in america? they cost way too much here, and its hard to get anything good.
you could probably pick up a crate of full auto ak47s in africa for what one civilian (semi-auto) version costs here.

the only terrorists buying guns in america are the ones doing it at bloomberg's direction.

[El Gato]

By all means, lets limit the rights of the many to catch the few. That's pretty much what my fifth grade teacher used to do, the old biddy. Or what a DI does to his basic training charges.

We The People, the ones who the Right to Keep and bear arms belongs, are supposed to be the masters of the government, not it's children, servants or underlings.

How about instead we just punish those Jihadies that funnel guns to their illegal brethren.

Besides, if one checked, I'm sure their are plenty of Islamics who hold licenses in areas of high concentration, such as Detroit, Arlington Texas, and other such places.

[robertpaulsen]

"Completely honest and legit folks."

Legit? Yes. Honest? No.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Legit? Yes. Honest? No."

And you make this stunning judgement based on what evidence??

I've known some of these guys personally, and they were indeed both legit and honest. People who are going to break the law aren't going to go to the trouble to get a FFL--only the squeakily honest ones will bother--same as for folks who take the trouble to get a CHL.

[Dead Corpse]

Some posters actually approve of the government restricting our Rights. These people are neither "conservative", nor ethical. Logic doesn't work on them. History doesn't count either.

You can try and convert them, but it is better to just identify them, then ignore their idiocy.

[OXENinFLA]

Federal Firearms Licenses have nothing to do with possession, shooting, carry, etc. FFL holders are firearms dealers, either in the traditional retail trade or pawnbrokers who have reason to sell firearms that were pawned but not redeemed.

Only real question here is, why are there 103,942 FFLs out there when only 80,570 are dealers in either the retail or secondary markets?

You're forgetting about C&R Collectors. A C&R is licensed as a FFL but is an FFL 03 and can NOT sell your guns in business sense.

A "gun dealer" is a FFL 01

[robertpaulsen]

"People who are going to break the law aren't going to go to the trouble to get a FFL"

I didn't say they were breaking the law. As a matter of fact, I agreed with you that they were "legit". So what are you talking about?

"And you make this stunning judgement based on what evidence??"

Your own statement -- "a lot" got the license "so they and a few friends could get guns wholesale." I'm calling that behavior dishonest. Legal but dishonest.

They had no intention of buying and selling guns retail. Maintaining an inventory. Providing a service.

It was a scam. You admit it was a scam. A way to get guns cheap. You think that's honest?

This attitude is the reason we have so many laws in this country -- "hey, if it's legal they can do it and don't you dare criticize them or accuse them of being dishonest".

[Ghengis]

I always translate it as boy thats the truth.

You mean that BTTT doesn't mean Big Time Titty Twister?

I am so glad that I resisted my urge to post how offended I was each time I read that acronym. ;-)

[robertpaulsen]

"Some posters actually approve of the government restricting our Rights."

While other posters believe in anarchy. Their rights supercede everyone else's. It's all about them. "Me me me", is all you hear from them.

Childish, selfish, immoral hedonists. Impossible to convert.