If I called a manufacturer with whom I have been working with for a few years and told them I am interested in my thousand employees using one of their specific products, they would probably send some free samples. This is a law enforcement officer with a FFL, I'm wonder where this axe to grind is coming from cough---cough--Zippy/Holder---cough.
Yep! I’m in agreement with you.
Almost all of that stuff makes it into private possession sports writers and professional athletes and regional corporate sales guys. I bet there isn't a police department in this country where the chief hasn't got a few 'free' guns tucked away as personal property.
Ah, but he used the agency's FFL, and that's a crime isn't it?! Okay:
As far as 'using the agency's Federal Firearms License (FFL) to obtain [discounts]', well, so? Walk into any gun store that you do regular business with and they will probably GIVE you a signed copy of their own FFL to use for that, because all that means is that you're asking for proof of ATF licensure so that you can have firearms shipped to the FFL holder from the manufacturer. The guns still have to go to the FFL's address and the NICS background check satisfied. There's nothing conspiratorial going on at all.
This story only sounds like some big deal, but I suspect that it's important to wait and see what's really going on. In my state, the gun manufacturer might be only too happy to sell a discounted merchandise right there in a WalMart parking lot in broad daylight to a Federal Air Marshal Chief (with or without seeing some agency FFL) as long as he passed NICS and wasn't a prohibited person -- which he wouldn't be because he's a Federal Air Marshal. Hey, maybe they'll get a free plug in 'Air Marshal Magazine', for crying out loud.
Okay, but it was malfeasance because a public official was doing it, some might say. That's why he's stepping down from his position. Oh, boy. Well, you have him there.