I was recently alerted to this 14 page(!) thread about my alleged thievery. I had not logged in to this site for quite some time and was not aware of this thread's existence until two days ago. Perhaps those of you who speculated about why I never shipped the customer's gun would like to hear the "rest of the story"...
The fellow sent me a check, and later, an FFL, yes. I did not ship the gun, so he contacted his local police department and the Missouri Attorney General to lodge formal complaints against me. He had carefully documented all of his correspondence to me, had a photocopy of the check I had cashed, and provided these things to the law enforcement agencies.
ALL OF THIS IS TRUE.
Now, here's a question for all of you to ponder: Can any of you think of a logical and acceptable reason why a person of integrity would deliberately and intentionally fail to ship a gun that had been paid for?
Go ahead, think on it for a bit, I'll wait...
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Here's what he DIDN'T tell you at any point in this 14 page thread:
The FFL he eventually sent me was EXPIRED.
When he contacted the police and the Missouri AG, he did NOT include copies of either the FFL, or the emails and texts that I had sent HIM. My emails pointed out that the FFL he had provided had expired before he had sent it to me, and to please get me a current one, either a physical copy or a scanned one sent by email.
I explained in my emails that I would be committing a felony if I shipped a gun to his dealer without having a current copy of their license in hand, and I wasn't going to do that.
After getting threatening letters from the authorities, I wrote back to the police department and the Missouri Attorney General, explaining these facts. I enclosed a photo of the expired license on top of the envelope (showing postmark) it came in, and the check that I was sending to refund his money with a 20% annualized interest rate added for the days that I had the funds.
Now, can any of you come up with a scenario where this story makes any sense at all? I have the man's money, and I have the gun he wants. All I need is a valid, current copy of an FFL in his state, and I'll ship the gun. Instead of emailing me a current scan with an apology for the oversight, he contacts law enforcement? How does that make any sense? Go ahead, think on it, I'll wait...
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There is an old adage "never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." However, failing to provide something as basic as a current FFL after repeated requests, and then siccing law enforcement on me goes far beyond mere incompetence.
This situation was smelling more and more like the "customer" or his alleged dealer had run afoul of the ATF, and one or both of them had been recruited by that agency to lure me into actions that would constitute a felony. That is the way the ATF operates.
In my letter to the AG, I freely admitted that I had been critical of the ATF in the past, and I wasn't going to fall for a game of entrapment. I explained that I was NEVER going to do business in the future with the Montana licensee in question, current FFL copy or not.
The guy cashed my check, and I sent bank photocopies to the authorities. This immediately closed the case to the satisfaction of both enforcement agencies, and I never heard from the guy or his dealer again.
Oh, and someone mentioned in this thread that I "don't even have an FFL."
ALSO TRUE. After dragging their feet on renewing my license in July of 2016, saying they were "busy" and giving me extension letters, ATF stopped taking my calls or answering my emails in November 2016, starting the day after Trump won the election. On January 19, 2017, ATF called and said they were not renewing my license after over 40 years of being in business. Note the date...
As a final note, I must say that after reading this lengthy thread two days ago, I'm disappointed that many of you elected to pile on, but nobody thought to ask "Hey, is the FFL you sent him current?"
John Ross