Jolly Rancher
Member
How much does your dealer disclose about you?
Hi I've been lurking here awhile without speaking out but I had an experience yesterday that got me wondering about FFL dealers going out of their way to report "suspect" activity to local and federal authorities. There is a well established dealer in my area that is one of the few places to buy reloading components and I went there yesterday to pick up a few items. While I was in the shop I stuck up a conversation with the owner about the firearms trade and shooting in general.
During the course of the conversation the owner let it be known that he has issues with selling "assault-type weapons" (which he doesn't) and the people who own them. I'm paraphrasing here but it was his opinion that people who owned these type weapons were irresponsible and gave the shooting sports a bad name. He also when on to say it was his policy not to buy firearms outright from indidviduals for fear of be caught dealing with stolen goods. OK I would like to say at this point that everyone is entitled to their opinions and are free to conduct their business as they see fit, but what I took exception with was his comments about his relationship with ATF/FBI/local LE. He spoke about regularly writting down the serial numbers of guns that people came in to sell or trade and then having backround checks ran on them to see if they were stolen and then reporting individual. He spoke that on a regular basis law enforcement agencies ask him to look thought his files to see if "persons of interest" had purchased firearms from him and what the person had bought along with serial #s. He stated that upon occassion he was ask to report any individual that he thought was suspicious (i.e. terrorist, drug dealers, etc., etc.). How I've been around for awhile and have gotten to know a few dealers and in most cases they are good guys who try to operate within the law and cooperate with ATF/FBI/ Local LE when appoached for information and discloser of this information was appropriate, but they didn't go out of their way to play IMO "Jr G-Man". The feeling I got from this guy was he was acting as an unpaid informant keeping an eye out for what he considered "suspicious activity and persons". Kind of made me feel like I was living in Stalinist Russia. Anyway my question to fellow THR members is how prevalent is this behavoir in the shooting community do you think?
Hi I've been lurking here awhile without speaking out but I had an experience yesterday that got me wondering about FFL dealers going out of their way to report "suspect" activity to local and federal authorities. There is a well established dealer in my area that is one of the few places to buy reloading components and I went there yesterday to pick up a few items. While I was in the shop I stuck up a conversation with the owner about the firearms trade and shooting in general.
During the course of the conversation the owner let it be known that he has issues with selling "assault-type weapons" (which he doesn't) and the people who own them. I'm paraphrasing here but it was his opinion that people who owned these type weapons were irresponsible and gave the shooting sports a bad name. He also when on to say it was his policy not to buy firearms outright from indidviduals for fear of be caught dealing with stolen goods. OK I would like to say at this point that everyone is entitled to their opinions and are free to conduct their business as they see fit, but what I took exception with was his comments about his relationship with ATF/FBI/local LE. He spoke about regularly writting down the serial numbers of guns that people came in to sell or trade and then having backround checks ran on them to see if they were stolen and then reporting individual. He spoke that on a regular basis law enforcement agencies ask him to look thought his files to see if "persons of interest" had purchased firearms from him and what the person had bought along with serial #s. He stated that upon occassion he was ask to report any individual that he thought was suspicious (i.e. terrorist, drug dealers, etc., etc.). How I've been around for awhile and have gotten to know a few dealers and in most cases they are good guys who try to operate within the law and cooperate with ATF/FBI/ Local LE when appoached for information and discloser of this information was appropriate, but they didn't go out of their way to play IMO "Jr G-Man". The feeling I got from this guy was he was acting as an unpaid informant keeping an eye out for what he considered "suspicious activity and persons". Kind of made me feel like I was living in Stalinist Russia. Anyway my question to fellow THR members is how prevalent is this behavoir in the shooting community do you think?
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