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ATF Inspection Yesterday
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,017 ******
Short version, I passed.
And, it was an enjoyable experience.
Inspector was very senior, working for the ATF after retiring as a police officer. He was here about 2 hours, and very thoroughly checked my inventory and paperwork. He pointed out some things I could do better, and a better bound book source, and rated the visit, "no violations found."
Afterward, we went downtown for lunch, but he wouldn't let me buy.
Comments
I suppose buying him lunch would put some shade on the review.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Good job! During my gun counter days I met some inspectors that were real decent folk. I also met a few that were a real p.i.t.a. Some came in with a helpful attitude and some arrived with a gotcha type attitude.
It seemed that the older, more mature ones had the helpful attitude and as a rule the younger, newer ones didn't. I figured the younger ones were trying harder to find problems so that they would look good to their bosses and maybe get a promotion. Bob
Seems that happens whenever someone is given more authority than they are mature enough to handle
Use extreme caution when someone from Government shows up and offers to help you. Glad this guy was not brain dead and looking for an excuse to hammer you.
I'll let you buy...
Glad the outcome was good.
Question: Did he give you notice or did he show up during your noted "hours of operation"? Just wondering.
The fact that you were both veteran retired officers did not hurt a bit.
He called and made an appointment. Every time I've been inspected, I've had notice. Glad of it too, especially back when I had a job.
The last time they came it took them two weeks to get finished digging through everything. Of course, clarical errors and such were found....corrected as we found them. I had "the meeting" downtown afterwards and the guy in charge gave me the warning I'm sure he gives everyone. Its just how this branch handles things in our area. Everyone here has had similar experiences. My only issue is the agents never have any retail sales experience. I think it should be a requirement that they spend a specific number of weeks behind the counter at a gun store before they can be agents. Once they help an elderly person with the form....show countless firearms to shoppers.....logging everything in and out while the phone is ringing non stop....trying to sort out invoices from every vendor imaginable.....sorting out all the nonsense of day to day gun store jibber jabber. I think they'll be more understanding when it comes to checking things. I totally get that we DO need a safety net to assure people are doing things correctly.....but I refuse to understand why abbreviations on the forms are so important.
I always send a copy of my D/L, with the number, height, weight, etc blacked out to help prevent fraud. All they need is my name and address. The last gun I sold, the FFL called me and said that he was just inspected, and the ATF is now requiring complete pictures of ID, with nothing blacked out. Did they happen to mention that to you David?
No, but some agents get it wrong. One agent told the property officer at a nearby S.O. that he cannot sell any pre-1968 firearms that have no serial numbers.
I tried to ask him why he needed more info than what was recorded in his A&D book, but he wasn't going for it. Thanks for the answer.
@Locust Fork wrote: I think it should be a requirement that they spend a specific number of weeks behind the counter at a gun store before they can be agents. Once they help an elderly person with the form....show countless firearms to shoppers.....logging everything in and out while the phone is ringing non stop....trying to sort out invoices from every vendor imaginable.....sorting out all the nonsense of day to day gun store jibber jabber.
They tried something similar for salesmen at a machine shop where I worked. Had to stop because none lasted.
The first FFL I worked with was handicapped. ATF didn't agree with the way his CPA liked the paperwork organized, but they said it was the first time they actually saw a real gun shop in a house. Must have gotten a gold star as they didn't show up for his next 3 renewals.