I can't seem to find much detail from ATF regarding whether or not they treat different classes of FFL's differently in terms of what they're looking for. It's a few years off yet until I'll have the means, but I'd love to get my 07 FFL (manufacturer) in a few years. I have a few years of experience with machine work and although I know I wouldn't make much doing it (nor hope for more than breaking even), I'd love to run a little side business building guns and doing transfers for local folks buying guns interstate. And before someone points out the "make a profit" bit of ATF's criteria, you don't need to be buying yachts with your gun money to be a turning a profit - hell, most gun shops LOSE money their first few years. To my understanding, you just need to be business minded with your eye towards making money, and building guns to sell with a manufacturer license seems to fit that quite well, even if you also take advantage of easy transfers for yourself and only work on a small scale.
My questions, which I cannot find answers to either from ATF or google, are:
1) Is it considered bad if an 07 FFL holder does more transfer business than manufacturing business? If I wind up having a tough year at work, limited time to spend on my side business, and wind up doing a lot more internet transfers for local folks than actually building and selling guns in a given year, is ATF going to want a word about why I have an 07 instead of an 01, or is this considered acceptable behavior?
2) Licensing and zoning issues aside, does anyone know if ATF shows more leniency about facilities for 07's than 01's? I can understand why they would want an 01 to have an actual store and take a harder look at and be less likely to approve "kitchen table" 01's, but is there precedent for them being fine with "garage machine shop" 07's, assuming all permit/zoning/licensing bits are on the level?
And I know I could call ATF and get definite answers. I'm just getting a feel for the environment at this point and don't need to waste time on the phone or wait for letters from them to get legally binding answers for this, I'm just trying to build my understanding so I know where to inquire in a year or two when I have the means.
My questions, which I cannot find answers to either from ATF or google, are:
1) Is it considered bad if an 07 FFL holder does more transfer business than manufacturing business? If I wind up having a tough year at work, limited time to spend on my side business, and wind up doing a lot more internet transfers for local folks than actually building and selling guns in a given year, is ATF going to want a word about why I have an 07 instead of an 01, or is this considered acceptable behavior?
2) Licensing and zoning issues aside, does anyone know if ATF shows more leniency about facilities for 07's than 01's? I can understand why they would want an 01 to have an actual store and take a harder look at and be less likely to approve "kitchen table" 01's, but is there precedent for them being fine with "garage machine shop" 07's, assuming all permit/zoning/licensing bits are on the level?
And I know I could call ATF and get definite answers. I'm just getting a feel for the environment at this point and don't need to waste time on the phone or wait for letters from them to get legally binding answers for this, I'm just trying to build my understanding so I know where to inquire in a year or two when I have the means.
