After I left work yesterday (I'm an Animal Control Officer), I headed to the local gun shop/ FFL where I had my Browning 1919a4 sent. As I walked in I see two ladies standing over a 1919a4 and taking close up pictures of it laying on the counter while talking to an employee. Gullible me walks up and says "Nice, I just bought one too and am here to pick it up." Right then, they Identify themselves as ATF agents and ask for my name for confirmation . They then proceeded to ask if its Full or Semi auto and I told them that its a semi because I have not filed for a tax stamp, etc. Long story short, they were suspicious about it (asked for the info of the person I bought it from and information on John McGuire..because he's a reputable SOT that did the build). What made it worse, is that the manager there initially claimed that he wasn't expecting to receive it even though I called there multiple times and had an employee fax their FFL info to the seller (that was cleared up when I got there). The seller even had thorough contact with them (20+ exchanged emails) and I was told that everything was arranged for pick up (he talked to the agents on the phone as well when I was there). Now supposedly, the agents were already at the range/shop and happened to be there when my gun was delivered. After asking for my license and asking me several questions, they said the my gun will have to stay at the shop for about 2 weeks until one of their specialist can come by and verify that its a semi automatic.
I'm just 24 but I'm far from new to the process of picking up a firearm from an FFL; and I've never been in a situation like this. I mean, being an officer with 2 degrees in Criminal Justice, I never would have guessed that I'd be federally investigated for doing something legal. And even though I did nothing wrong, having 2 agents thoroughly question me was a little nerve wrecking.
What i don't understand is, why is my 1919a4 being singled out? Using their logic, all of the other guns transferred there, could potentially be full auto because of their looks!
My questions are:
1) Have you ever been in this type of situation?
2) What would you have done?
3) What would you do from here? (I already got the shop owner to email me a confirmation that it was transferred there)
Here it is:
I'm just 24 but I'm far from new to the process of picking up a firearm from an FFL; and I've never been in a situation like this. I mean, being an officer with 2 degrees in Criminal Justice, I never would have guessed that I'd be federally investigated for doing something legal. And even though I did nothing wrong, having 2 agents thoroughly question me was a little nerve wrecking.
What i don't understand is, why is my 1919a4 being singled out? Using their logic, all of the other guns transferred there, could potentially be full auto because of their looks!
My questions are:
1) Have you ever been in this type of situation?
2) What would you have done?
3) What would you do from here? (I already got the shop owner to email me a confirmation that it was transferred there)
Here it is:
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