Trump Redirecting ATF Investigations
ATF Joins Illegal Immigrant Enforcement, Kinda...
This piece is being cross posted here and at The Bangswitch. Yes, you read that right, The Bangswitch is coming back!
One of the promises made by President Trump during his campaign was that he was going to severely crack down on illegal immigration. He was not just limiting that to people crossing the border illegally, but was also talking about Visa overstays and other ways in which people are in the United States illegally. To that end, it appears that he is even getting the ATF involved in that goal, at least in some small respect.
I work at a gun store in the greater Boise, ID area. I have been at this store since it opened in 2020. We have only ever been visited by the ATF twice. The first time was for our initial new FFL inspection and audit by the licensing agent. Our initial inspection was delayed because of the federal government’s Covid policies, so they came out about a year later to do the physical inspection and performed a routine audit at the same time.
The only other time an ATF agent has been in our store (at least to our knowledge) was two days ago, and this time it was one of their enforcement agents. No, they did not storm the store in tactical gear nor did they swarm us in the parking lot as we arrived at opening time. The agent called on the phone and let us know he would be coming by to take a look at three different 4473’s (federal background check forms) that were denials. In other words, the person came in to the store to buy a gun and they did not pass the background check - they were denied the ability to purchase.
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We dug up the three 4473’s that he wanted and we noticed that they all had a common theme. The person who was attempting to purchase the firearm was not a US citizen, but rather had some sort of temporary visa. On our end, when presented a temporary visa, we have no way of knowing what type it is (student, work, etc). We can just tell the difference between a temporary one and a permanent resident alien (green card). These three were all temporary visas.
When the agent arrived at the store, wearing a flannel, jeans and a pair of Old Skool Vans, we had a good conversation about issues he sees in Idaho and more specifically, we asked about why the sudden desire to investigate denials.
He told us that they had received new direction from President Trump. In fact, he said their direction had changed slightly several times since Trump took office, but they are currently being told to focus on non-residents (aliens) who illegally attempt to purchase firearms. The three 4473’s that we gave him copies of were three such incidents that he was going to be following up on.
Quite frankly, from the viewpoint of a retired cop who sells guns, I am glad to see the ATF finally looking into falsified 4473’s, especially where it concerns non-citizens attempting to illegally buy firearms. It is about time!