Washington Two charged in scheme to illegally purchase firearms and transfer them to others

[Member 34319]

Yes the agents of course do not set out one morning to do random stuff. No Cops do. What many can't seem to get their head around is how many agents the ATF has compared to how many guns are sold every day. When there is a boom going on many here love to post the numbers of how many BG checks are being done every day in one state. So why are agents not going door to door to these people? Because they can't. They would need to hire and army. I have seen a few idiots get in trouble with the ATF. They had to work REALLY hard to get their attention. When I hear some story that some joe sixpack bought a couple guns and they showed up? Color me VERY skeptical. One constant is people who do get their attention always say they did nothing to get the attention. For a long time people were selling solvent traps on Amazon. This went on for years. Amazon would not be selling stuff like this unless they were selling piles of them. So is there 100's of thousands of ATF agents running these all down? Sure. This is play stupid games win stupid prizes. If the ATF is showing up at your door you had to really send up some flags to get them to do so.

+1000

Average Joe following all the laws likely will never, ever, get a visit from a cop much less an ATF agent.

I've known folks with illegal weapons.

For one instance, a member at the club I shoot at bought a pistol braced gun and put a regular stock on it NEVER KNOWING that wasn't kosher. They never had anyone even question it until I did. The look of horror on that persons face still sits etched in my brain as a moment I'll never forget. I think he might have even peed a little. That is how well the ATF puts the fear of god into all of the citizens its organization oversees. He said he put the stock on it shortly after he bought it, 3 or so years before I asked him if he had any other tax stamps. Best part, he put the brace back on it and now is reaching out panicking again over all this brace ruling shenanigans.

I still remember his response.

"Tax stamp, what's a tax stamp?"

 

[The Heretic]

Average Joe following all the laws likely will never, ever, get a visit from a cop much less an ATF agent.

Never say never; you may win the ATF lottery and get chosen to be made an example of - especially if they look at your social media and get a hard on for you.

 

[Member 34319]

Never say never; you may win the ATF lottery and get chosen to be made an example of - especially if they look at your social media and get a hard on for you.

And that is that fear of God at work.

Partly because internet echo chamber, partly because no one really knows what the F the ATF actually does.

 

[The Heretic]

And that is that fear of God at work.

Partly because internet echo chamber, partly because no one really knows what the F the ATF actually does.

Of course - that is how the gov works.

Want to be take that chance?

Never is an absolute adverb - it means NO ONE would ever be a target. You cannot guarantee that.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

The problem with saying "they were doing something stupid and that's why atf visited them" in many cases is not true. Fe some of these visits are for grey area stuff where people legitimately don't know if it's legal or not. This is at least partially due to 1934 definitions that don't fit modern guns.

For example some members here have reported atf visits to confiscate their triggers. It's not like these members were out there peddling Glock switches or something like that.

And like in the example above where the visit is for buying two guns in one week. There is zero evidence of that guy doing anything stupid to attract atf attention. Many other similar examples exist.

Add to that things like bump stocks etc where in the past atf said they were legal and now they changed their mind. That makes it even more murky for the consumer.

Add to that ATF's purposely vague defintions for things like constructive possession, what constitutes a "machine gun", and braces. You could duct tape a popsicle stick to a pistol, or put a pad on your shoulder to accept a buffer tube, and technically be subject to 10 years in jail if they chose to prosecute you.

Add to that confiscating airsoft toy guns and saying they could easily be turned into real machine guns.

And on and on.

 

[The Heretic]

For example some members here have reported atf visits to confiscate their triggers.

This. With binary triggers in their sights, how long will it be before they go after other triggers? I don't have any binary triggers or FRTs, but I have a Gieselle trigger that will shoot almost as fast with some practice. The pretense regarding binary/FRTs is that they can be used to shoot almost as fast as full auto, so therefor they must be full auto - same with bumpstocks, same with braces - these are kind of like NFA firearms, so they must be NFA firearms.

 

[Alexx1401]

+1000

Average Joe following all the laws likely will never, ever, get a visit from a cop much less an ATF agent.

I've known folks with illegal weapons.

For one instance, a member at the club I shoot at bought a pistol braced gun and put a regular stock on it NEVER KNOWING that wasn't kosher. They never had anyone even question it until I did. The look of horror on that persons face still sits etched in my brain as a moment I'll never forget. I think he might have even peed a little. That is how well the ATF puts the fear of god into all of the citizens its organization oversees. He said he put the stock on it shortly after he bought it, 3 or so years before I asked him if he had any other tax stamps. Best part, he put the brace back on it and now is reaching out panicking again over all this brace ruling shenanigans.

I still remember his response.

"Tax stamp, what's a tax stamp?"

YEP! From what I have seen of the "honest mistakes" over the years I have little doubt someone has gotten in a jam with something NFA they really had no idea was "wrong". The one guy I knew who went to the fed bed and breakfast over this knew full well what he was doing and poked that bear for years to get them to bite. Not that they, like any enforcement agency are above screw ups but, I am always VERY doubtful when I hear someone was just buying a couple guns and they showed up at the door. I always guess there was a LOT to the story the person was not telling everyone.

 

[Alexx1401]

And that is that fear of God at work.

Partly because internet echo chamber, partly because no one really knows what the F the ATF actually does.

A GREAT example of this is when some story "breaks" like the one that got this the sky is falling thread started. Look how long those morons did what they did before the fed's finally did something.