With respect, your understanding of how the ATF works is seriously deficient. Even the most insignificant violation (such as punctuation and spelling errors) of ANY regulation can and has resulted in ATF starting prosecution and/or seizure proceedings against the the hapless “offenders”. The example listed here, and tens of thousands around the country in recent years, are the precise reason that an ATF reform bill looks like it will pass out of Congress this year. It is also why ATF has been the subject of numerous “reform” laws in the past, perhaps more than any other federal agency. It would be better for the country, in my opinion, to fold the ATF’s responsibilities into the FBI and dissolve the agency entirely, but Congress seems always to lack the moral courage to actually abolish a federal agency, no matter how pressing the justification or egregious the behavior.
However, ATF is a bum organization and should have been closed long ago. I would say 90% of its agents are nothing more than everyday criminals.