Mac's dogtown tom:
The bottom line here is that there a few decent ATF Compliance Inspectors out there but most of them are other than decent. "Other" is defined as: Ignorant, unsafe, wannabe cops, supporting their own agenda, supporting somebody elses agenda, wanting to score points by whacking some Dealer, etc.
Do you have a source for that statistic?
REALLY? Do you really want to go there? Part of the problem with that statement is that the ATF changes the laws pretty much whenever they want to.
Seriously?
ATF doesn't change laws, Congress does. ATF (like all federal agencies) formulates "regulations".
For example: Here in Arizona, ATF encouraged gun smugglers to buy weapons from local gun shops...lots of weapons... like in the thousands. Then ATF facilitated the transport of those weapons to south of the border, where they were used to murder a lot of people. Some of those weapons came back north of the border and murdered Americans. The end result of all of that?
And that WAS NOT the decision of IOI's but from the Enforcement side. IOI's didn't have anything to do with that.
Now, the Dealers in Arizona have to file extra forms everytime some somebody buys two or more of a certain type of rifle. That's a new law that ATF made up as a result of the Gunwalker scandal.
Not just Arizona, but California, New Mexico and Texas. I filled out two of them last night.
Ask the Dealers who have been abused, lied to or shut down because of some ATF BS. I was ordered by a ATF Compliance Inspector to re-write my entire Bound Book by hand and have it completed by five days. I did it but it turns out she had no authority or justification to make that. She forced me to do it because she wanted to.
Really? She "forced you"?
Seriously, if you allow yourself to be railroaded by an IOI who doesn't know the regs then you have no business being a dealer. One quick call to her supervisor would have stopped that nonsense pronto.
Ask the Dealers who have been falsely investigated and had their entire inventory of firearms thrown into metal barrels during the course of that investigation. Ask them if they ever got paid for the damage.
Care to cite an actual case? And again, it isn't an IOI tossing guns in barrels is it?
Ask Brian Terry what he thinks about ATF helping criminals to get semi auto weapons. Oh wait! You can't ask him. He was murdered by one those ATF weapons.
Oh good grief.
Throwing Brian Terry's name out as some kind of blanket indictment of what IOI's do is just full on stupid. IOI's had NOTHING to do with his death. The botched guwalking operation was clearly run by ATF Enforcement.....not Industry Operations. If you have some sort of insider knowledge you better spill it because no one else has.
The ATF is NOT our friend but you sure do seem to think so.
Nothing I've posted would give a sane person the idea that I consider the ATF as a friend.........nice putdown though. ATF is an agency of MY government, just like the IRS, Social Security Administration, my local PD, my local school district..............I don't take crap from them and neither should anyone else. I make it a priority to know ATF regs BETTER than my IOI. When he tells me "blah, blah, blah" I ask for the regulation that says that.....and he provides it. Any IOI that invents a regulation damn well better be prepared to back it up or I'll be on the phone to his supervisor.
I have yet to encounter an ATF employee who has showed anything less than complete professionalism. Every IOI that I have met was friendly, polite and competent. Visit the FFL Only forum and you'll discover that MY experience is the norm rather than the exception.
You have defended them at every turn, quoted their rules and regs, etc. No, I'm not accusing you of anything. What I am saying though, is be careful that your faith and loyalty doesn't get you into hot water.
You consider me as defending them, I consider what I posted as an explanation. You didn't read the regs. If you had you would have known immediately that your bound book was not in compliance. Me pointing out that it was YOUR MISTAKE isn't the same as me defending ATF.