In this candid discussion, I share my personal journey as an FFL and shed light on the tactics employed by the current administration to restrict access to firearms. From the targeting of gun stores that question ATF regulations to the power struggle between individual rights and bureaucratic control, this episode examines the vital importance of the Second Amendment and the need to protect it. Fountain Podcast App Follow me on Fountain
In this candid discussion, I share my personal journey as an FFL and shed light on the tactics employed by the current administration to restrict access to firearms. From the targeting of gun stores that question ATF regulations to the power struggle between individual rights and bureaucratic control, this episode examines the vital importance of the Second Amendment and the need to protect it. Fountain Podcast App Follow me on Fountain
Welcome to the live to shoot podcast. My name is Jeff Dowdell and I've been a licensed firearm dealer for the last 16 years. And this podcast talk about all things related to second amendment as well as anything else going in the news or anything in my personal life or anything else that might be interesting. So welcome, welcome, welcome. I hope you all are having a great day. This is a recording on the 14th of July. Yesterday was my wife's birthday and hotter than fire here in Dallas. So welcome, welcome, welcome. I haven't, don't know if I've told my. Why I am a FFL. How I became an FFL. So as the opening says, I've been an FFL for 16 years. 2007 is when I got my license, I believe. And I originally did it because I had aspirations with my brother of opening a gun store, a range, doing all those things. And so we started off and we were gung ho. And we, you know, we had inventory. We. Had an online store. We were, you know, selling a lot of guns and in the process too I was doing a lot of transfers for people in the area and one thing, you know, so that was 2008 and I mean 2007 And we all know what happened in 2008 and it just became harder to keep it up And so we decided to back off a little bit take a break It's really hard to make money selling guns. There's not a lot of margin in selling guns. But I really, I really like to do them the transfers. And I noticed in talking to people that would come in and do transfers that a lot of them didn't like going to gun stores to do the transfers because they charged them an outrageous gun store, transfer fee because they didn't sell them the gun. They weren't as welcoming because they didn't buy the gun from them and it was just felt it was inconvenient and and kind of a hassle and they expressed appreciation for what I did and so I realized you know you know I want to keep doing this because I like getting the guns like seeing all the guns and like talking to people and there's a little extra spending money but also I want to be able to help facilitate people buying guns to exercise their Second Amendment right. And that's why I became an FFL, or why I'm still an FFL, I guess. Because I really enjoy and feel like it's, you know, just a little bit of my part to let people have an affordable transfer fee, a convenient process, no hassle, no judgment on where you got the gun or what kind of gun it is. Nothing like that sort. Women, for some buyers, they all come in, they're very comfortable. And so that's why I did it. No, no, you know, I'm not looking for great applause and accolades or whatever, but just trying to do my little part. But there are a lot of gun stores out there that are, you know, doing the same thing. They're, they're trying to, you know, just sell guns to people so that they can exercise their second amendment. And. As we know our president. This regime hates guns, and they're doing everything in their power to prevent us from getting guns. And they've realized that it's going to be really hard to do that legally. By that I mean, going to the legislature, writing laws, and to ban guns, confiscate guns, because it's just not popular. People understand why we have the Second Amendment, and why we... We need guns to protect ourselves from our own government. And the government wants to take our guns because they want to control us. We've gone over this a lot, right? So, if you can't ever, if you realize you can't get guns, you know, removed legally, well then let's just use all the powers that we have. So, what have we done? We have done all sorts of different new rules and regulations. We have. changed the definition of firearms. We've made pieces of metal that aren't firearms, but just hunks of metal now considered firearms. And then, but anything that you can make potentially is a firearm. And pieces of plastic that, you know, help you hold a pistol now make things short barrel rifles. And just, All these things to do that. And the other thing that they are doing is they're going after us. The gun stores, the FFLs, and they're not shy about it. If they can eliminate where you, the options that you have to purchase guns. So supply demand. So the supply goes down and the demand is up. Prices are gonna go up. It's gonna get harder and harder to buy guns and eventually if they can just eliminate the entire supply That's what they're gonna do and that is what they are doing. So there is a case out there that has just Happened and it's the gun owners of america great organization They are suing the atf along with A gun store morehouse enterprises. They're in north dakota They operate under the name of Bridge City Ordinance, and they have had their license revoked by the a TF because of they, they quote unquote, failed an inspection. So the backstory on this is that gun Owners of America and Bridge City Ordinance. Have sued the ATF back in July of 2022 over the ruling on unfinished frames and receivers that this, this was unconstitutional. This was July, 2022 and February 2023. About 8 months later, the ATF comes knocking on the door of Bridge City Ordinance for an inspection. Bridge City Ordinance never had an inspection in their entire course of business. And coincidentally enough, after the ATF after they sued the ATF, The ATF comes and knocking on their door and begins to inspect them. And I was in February of 2022, 2023. And in May of 2023, they issued a order to revoke their license because of the. failures that they had. And so as part of the audit, all their guns, 2, 700 acquisitions, and there was 2, 400 and some odd dispositions, were properly documented. They only had five violations that occurred in the audit. Five. And. Three were transcription errors, so they had an occasion where they forgot to record that it had returned a firearm to a customer for a gunsmith who dropped off for gunsmithing. On the second they had written down the customer social security number instead of the NICS Indian NICS number on the form, and then the third they had transcribed the the NICS And they missed a digit. So those are three of the errors. The other two errors were one transaction where they sold a handgun to someone out of state. So. A little information for you. When the ATF comes and inspects you, they get all your transfers for the last 12 months. This is the way it's always been for me. They go 12 months back and they go through every, every 4473, every transaction that you've had. They make sure that your inventory lines up. They do an inventory of what you have. Versus what your book shows, then they go through all your transactions and they, one they're first making sure that you don't have guns that you're not supposed to, and two that all the guns that you show you have. You do have, and then they go through all the transactions and on ED4473, you could make, you might make two or three errors potentially on a 4473. You you date it differently than the customer dated it. You forget to write down their driver's license number. You forget to write down the NTN number. And so like I've been inspected and when I do my forms, I don't copy the driver's license and I'm running, I run the background check, I print out the background check. So there have been, there were complications and, and and this has been happened before is, you know, I forgot to write down the driver's license number, but I had the driver's license copy of it stapled to the form, still a violation. And so I can, you can have two or three violations. on one form, but each form, the total number of potential violations, it does not go against your total. So if you're, they look at a hundred forms and you have one form that has five violations, it's a 5% error rate. But those were the reasons why they revoked their, their license. And now, as we've always talked about, I'll go back, I'll step back. So how can that be? Well, the way the ATF has worked historically is that they have a, the policy, and this is the way I've always understood it, was that you had, when you, things that could lead to a revocation were that you are potentially potentially have problems is that you had a history of similar violations brought to you by the ATF. So, and this is the one that got, so if I. Got inspected last year and I had forgot to write down driver's license number one time Then they inspect me again And there's another violation where I forgot to write down driver's license number now They can the ATF has the ability to say that that is willful and that's the key thing or the mistakes that you're making Willful and then when they deem that they're willful that's when they can revoke your license if I have acknowledged the regulations in prior inspection reports, or if I just make a statement, you know, those were things that would indicate that they were willful, but still, I mean, that's pretty, pretty strict, meaning that if I make one mistake one year and I make the same mistake again, and they were just paperwork errors, and this in this case here for this dealer, they, they, they're just paperwork errors, no bad guys, got it. Okay. But what they, what it is, is the Biden administration using their power, one, to strike back at this dealer for suing them, right? And then two, going about just trying to eliminate all the possible dealers. Because what happened is they, and now... And so prior to 2022, those were the three reasons I'd done it before. I acknowledged that to the ATF that I understood that this was a potential violation or three, I just admitted to making errors. Those are things that can deem it a bit willful. Now the ATF in 2022, they've added to that. And they said that if there's publications and information provided to the FFL, which explains the FFL's legal responsibility, there's a history of past compliance by the FFL with the same regulation. So if I've done it well in the past, and then I make a mistake, then that means it's willful. Okay, I've done a really good job, and I make one mistake, that's willful. Or that the FFL has, or I've just been doing this a long time. Been an FFL for 16 years and they come inspect me and you made a mistake. Now they're like, well, you've been doing this for so long. This is a willful mistake. We're going to take away your license. So those are the things that can happen. Why they can do it. Now, what are the results of these? Well. The ATF has greatly increased the number of licenses that they revoked. It is up almost 300% in terms of revocations. The numbers were 92 and and, 2022 they didn't provoke 92 licenses that's the most since 2008 and it was triple any license revoked in 2021 and Even though they inspected the same number of dealers ATF gun store Revocations are the highest they've been in 16 years according to for according to the trace They've also though the other thing is they coerced and voluntary Ceasing of operations has greatly increased by a thousand percent. So now they put so much pressure on us. Instead of just fighting them, they've, they've decided to gun storage or just given up. You know, it's not worth the effort, can't afford it, that type of thing. So that's what the ATF is doing, you know, regardless that all these rules, if the, if the ATF had to fall on themselves, they couldn't do it. They've lost guns. They've had stolen from agents. They've had, you know, the fast and furious scenario. They've done studies whenever they go. And, and I've had this experience too, that. So whenever I like an NFA item that they, that is actually registered, they've done studies where there's a discrepancy between what's the documentation that the FFL might have versus what the National Farms NFA group has almost always. The FFL is accurate because they've written thumbs and down wrong. They've transcribed it wrong. So the ATF can't even, you know, stand up to its own standards because one, the ridiculous standards is the bar they're trying to give us FFLs is extremely high. There's no way it basically any one mistake that I can make on a paperwork error, whether that's misspelling something trans, you know, flipping the numbers on a serial number or, or anything like that and nothing that leads to bad guys getting guns. Or anything like that, but just some paperwork errors that doesn't impact anything legally, that they can take my license away, and that is what they're attempting to do, take away all of our licenses so there aren't any more gun stores, and again, so, whenever we look at this presidential election coming up, and I don't know if you saw the some of the questionnaireing of, of, The F fbi, I director F B i, Christopher Ray. And you know, the, obviously the dual system of justice and the, the covering for the Bidens and his responses. It is clear that this administrative state, the Department of Justice, b i, all of these atf the cdc irs, they had disdain force us because they see have more power over us. Then anybody else and the thing is nobody can fire them. You can't fire these people They've got laws that actually protect us from reducing firing people in these administrative agencies. They're in control They're not elected none. And so when we look at the election if the person you're voting for doesn't have what it takes to go out and attack and remove and control this administrative agency, this administrative regime that's been put in place. And that means making substantial changes. And we're going to always be in this way. We're going to be subjects. To them, and we are not a republic, we are essentially a monarchy that is controlled by a bunch of bureaucrats. So if he doesn't, whoever you vote for doesn't, you're voting for the wrong person. And right now, personally, Donald Trump is the only one that even, that has what it takes to go after this group. The others have no interest. And Spivek, Rahul Mosami, he wants to as well. But none of the others actually want to even attack the regime. So, think about that. Think about this story that I've told you about the ATF coming in after they've been filed suit, and attack, you know, surprisingly inspecting a gun store, and revoking their license for five mistakes that they've made, and that were inconsequential mistakes, but they're revoking them because, again, they're a threat. We're all a threat. I'm a threat. I don't know, you know, if these words and what I do here puts me on their radar. It may or it may not, but we've got to keep fighting and we've got to be willing to do what it takes. So keep fighting, stay strong, and have a good one. Talk to you later.
