ATF accused of perverting laws in a scheme to shut down gun shops
A Texas gun shop owner is suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over a new policy used to revoke firearm dealers’ licenses over small clerical errors in paperwork for gun sales, which the lawsuit says is a violation of federal gun laws.
The lawsuit accuses the ATF of misusing the 1968 Gun Control Act, which regulates gun sales by focusing on inadvertent errors — such as mistaking “county” for “country” on the firearm transaction Form 4473, which has 100 data points — as a pretext to close down gun shops.
“The administration has begun revoking licenses based on a handful of these inadvertent mistakes among thousands of Form 4473s that do not result in criminals or prohibited possessors obtaining guns. There’s just one problem: The administration’s enforcement policy ignores the text of the Gun Control Act,” said Nate Curtisi, an attorney for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is backing the litigation.
