doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com FFL Issue

I have to say that the little bit of money you make on a transferee is not worth the trouble it takes sometimes.We only charge $20.00 .A bigger gun store in town charges $50.00 .I had a guy that sent a gun back three times.It was a pain in my but.Then you have the ATF watching over you like a hawk.They will call you in for a meeting if you have one item wrong with your paper work.It really makes it hard sometimes.One reason we want take from an individual is the person has to provide all there information.When it is shipped you cant make sure that the person shipping is really them.Taking from a dealer with a copy of there FFL makes it easy.

Thank you all. I could not believe that a non licensed person couldn't ship a gun to an FFL. You confirmed my belief.
Thanks again.

It just happened that way: Before it was the ATF, it was called the ATU (alcohol tax unit). The alcohol tax collectors were not IRS type auditors, they were Elliot Ness type agents who chased moonshiners. Eventually the ATU also became resposbible for collecting tabacco taxes. As you are aware, back then smoking was not considered a vice in the same sense it is today.

Once upon a time, the government was much smaller and new federal agencies were not created out of the blue. Moonshine was fading as an issue. So, in 1968 it seemed to make sense to task existing ATU agents with inforcing the new Gun Contol Act and the name was changed to the ATF. There is no connection between the A, T, and F other than an existing federal agency being assigned additional tasks over the years.

In 1968 smoking was common. There were no smoke free buildings. Airline seats had ashtrays. Cigs were lightly taxed. Drinking was also looked upon differently. The drinking age was 18 in many states, drunk driving laws were lax (no MADD, SADD, etc.). New terms like social drinking and binge drinking had not been popularized by do-gooder types. People sometimes drank at work and behind the wheel. Drinking and smoking were behaviors, not social issues. Neither had the stigma they have today when the ATF came about.

The way polite society views smoking and drinking has shifted enormously since the inception of the ATF. Strange that today one may think firearms undeserving of being lumpped with alcohol and tobacco, because in 1968 an average person might have thought alcohol and tobacco undeserving of being lumpped with guns. Post-modern thinking at work.

So in the end it's still his license , and he has his "rules" . And if you don't want to follow his rules your only choice is to find another license holder whose rules you agree with .

True, but every dealer I ever was involved with that required shipment from an FFL claimed it was the law and the ATF required it. He can make his own rules but be man enough to be honest about it.

Lots of folks don't know the rules. I've had to show the USPS what their own rules say about shipping long guns. Once had an employee tell me you can't ship any guns. Then the postmaster on site came out and said you can ship long guns, but I had to be a dealer (which I'm not). I told him I was shipping the gun to the dealer and here's a copy of the dealer's FFL. He grumbled and moaned like I was breaking the law, but finally relented. Amazing with as many guns as get shipped via USPS, that there own employee's wouldn't know what the rules are.

Their ignorance of the ATF laws is as monumental as their gullibility about their dreamed-up rationale. What does a sending FFL holder do before sending, that proves anything about the seller? Nothing, other than take some of his money. What happens to an FFL on either end if the gun turns out to have been stolen? I'm betting nothing. The whole FFL to FFL scam is just a way to squeeze more money out of the customers, nothing more complicated than that. They're wrong and don't deserve your business.

What he said.

Quote:
"Their ignorance of the ATF laws is as monumental as their gullibility about their dreamed-up rationale. What does a sending FFL holder do before sending, that proves anything about the seller? Nothing, other than take some of his money. What happens to an FFL on either end if the gun turns out to have been stolen? I'm betting nothing. The whole FFL to FFL scam is just a way to squeeze more money out of the customers, nothing more complicated than that. They're wrong and don't deserve your business"

Jim:
That's certainly another reason that I had left out but since you brought it up here goes. I was negotiating with an out-of-state seller on a couple of C&R guns a few years ago. He would NOT believe it was perfectly legal to ship these to me which it is since I have a C&R license. He talked to a FFL holder who wanted $100 per gun to ship them to me and convinced the owner that this was the only way it could be done legally. Naturally the deal didn't go thru particularly after I had "words" with that FFL dealer. Unfortunately; There are some real crooks and rip off artists in this hobby posing as "dealers".
Jim

I would never consider doing anything illegal or asking an FFL holder to do anything that would jeopardize his license. However, any making up of "their own rules" is just plain lying and an attempt to steal undeserved money from their customers. This scummy behavior should not be tolerated. A common fee for receiving a firearm, here in Southern Utah is $25.(sometimes, no charge at all). Background check costs $7.50(not charged for CCW holders). I don't believe FFL fees in Kelifornia or other areas need to be several times that.($75-100). Robbery is illegal, just as surely as it is for an undocumented democrat, to sneak across the border.