I had a FFL for many years. I got it back in the day because it was a very cheap way to cut out the middle man when buying new guns, ammo and shooting supplies. I would sell a new gun every now and then to a friend, but never very many. The only restriction that I recall to acquiring the FFL was that one had to have actual premises from which to do "business". This was "stretched" to include a separate room in your home, though I was using a separate outbuilding. I renewed it at a very reasonable rate until Bill Clinton came on the federal scene. He made the annual renewal so expensive that it got to the point I no longer felt it was worth my expense and trouble to maintain it (as I recall it jumped from something like $35/yr. to about $200). So, I didn't renew. I received a letter to submit my records to the BATF. I procrastinated because I was uncertain that they were filled out correctly.
Fast forward to a couple years later. It's the fall of the year and I'm on a combine in a soybean field, behind some woods from the highway, and I see a black sedan pull into the field ......... very uncharacteristic. I stopped on the end and was greeted by a BATF agent in a black suit. He requested to see my old records. We went to my shop and I dug them out. He, in a very patient and nice way, pointed out to me the errors in my record-keeping. We went over to my house and made a pot of coffee, sat around the kitchen table and talked for about an hour about the farm, my reasons for ever having a FFL, and the weather. Very pleasant and agreeable chap. When he was ready to go he looked at me and said "It would be in your best interests, and make life easier for me, for you to just renew your FFL and keep on doing what you have been doing". No heavy handed talk or threatening posture whatsoever.
I eventually lost interest in new guns to the point that I quit renewing it again, and never heard another word from them. That was nearly thirty years ago. I would not expect the courteous tone and treatment from agents today that I received that afternoon so long ago.
