Dear ATF: Bite Me

ATF: New Rule On Gun Sellers Will Be Handled On A 'Case By Case' Basis | The Daily Caller:
January 20, 2016

LAS VEGAS — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) insists the agency will enforce President Barack Obama’s new executive actions “on a case by case basis.” Obama issued several executive actions pertaining to firearms earlier in the month. The ATF will start enforcing a rule any person selling firearms from a store, a gun shows, or online must have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) and conduct background checks. The administration stressed that there is no “specific threshold number of firearms purchased or sold that triggers the licensure requirement.” An ATF representative told The Daily Caller at the SHOT Show Tuesday, “It depends on how much you’re doing it and there’s no line. There’s no bright line number.”

(emphasis added)

Dear ATF:
I'm sorry, you have to do better than that.
I know I'm fairly ignorant about the law, but I do know the meaning of "Ex Post Pacto".

That means that if it's not against the law when I perform an action, I can't be held accountable for "illegal" actions which were not illegal before I do the action.

So if I go sell three guns at a gun show, as a private citizen, I haven't broken a law.
If I sell a dozen guns, I still haven't broken a law.
Because I'm not operating a business ... I'm just liquidating my private assets.

So if YOU ... BATF Agent that you are ... arbitrarily decide that I'm "operating a business" because I sold more than x-number of firearms during an hour, a day, a weekend ... you can't prosecute me for it until you determine what the "Bright Line Number" is.

Idiots.

This is a brand new concept that your bosses ...you know, the guys on the 7th floor? ... just dreamed up and now you have to work with it. Right?

SUCKS to be you.  If you could get A Real Job, you wouldn't have to be trying to figure out what your GOVERNMENTAL job is.

You know, there are rules, and there are laws.  One of the common characteristics of both RULES and LAWS is that there has to be some measure of default.

For example:

• if I flash a gun in a confrontation, I may be charged with Brandishing;
• if I point it at someone, I may be charged with MENACING
• if I shoot it at them, I may be charged with ASSAULT
• if I hit them, I may be charged with MAYHEM (or Attempted Murder .. depending)
• and if I kill them, I may be charged with HOMOCIDE 

Are we clear on that?  I know, they probably didn't teach you this in BATF SCHOOL.
But it's important.  AT least, it's important to ME, the guy who may be prosecuted depending on what charge you file when you arrest me.  Which you would, because you don't know any better.

Getting back to the number of guns I sell at a gun show, do you remember that your 7th floor bosses just said that .. what was that charming phrase they used?

Ah, yes:
“It depends on how much you’re doing it and there’s no line. There’s no bright line number.”

Question:  are ALL BATF(E) Agents this smug?  Or is it just the 7th Floor guys?

So, here's the deal:  before you can arrest someone for selling "too many" guns without a dealers' license, you have to know what number constitutes "too many".  Yes, someone has to determine that “... bright line number.”

And it has to be published, and announced, and there must be a 'reasonable' period of time to pass for the general public to become aware of how many guns is 'too many" to exceed that “... bright line number.” criteria.

Because without a number, there is no rule.  There is no law.  It's just a "warning", a "notice of intent", a "Heads Up" so to speak.  It's not enforceable.

That "bright line number" isn't an afterthought.  It isn't an arbitrary number (although we both know it really is).  It's the difference between "bullshit" and "The Law".
(Even if the law is still bullshit.)

So, when your bosses on the 7th floor get off their dead ass and finally make a decision, they need to let the boys in the scrap (that would be you) in on the secret.  And then they have to tell the boys in the mess (that would be 'us', who are supposedly affected by the 'law') what it really is.  Some kind of official notice would be good, except ... we're not "dealers" until you tell us we are,  And since we're not licensed, you have no way of identifying the folks you have to notify.  (The "Dealers" you already know, and they're licensed and everything, so they're not affected.  Do you see how much of a hardship this "bright line number" thingie imposes on honest citizens who are just trying to get along?)

(Aren't you just a little embarrassed to be working for an agency which has its head so far up its ass that there is no definition of an illegal act, no communications with the public, and a strong chance that innocent civilians will be prosecuted for doing something which was perfectly legal before your boss turned all arbitrary and surprised us all with a subpoena?)

I know.  You're as surprised as we are that this new mandate came down without it even got halfway thought through.  And you'll be embarrassed to enforce it, I get that.

But the rest of us?

We're going to jail.   Not because we aren't compliant, but because we don't even know what "compliant" means, in the legal sense.  Your 7th Floor guys didn't bother to let us know in time for us ..you know, the guys who are NOT in the system? .... to figure it out and try to adjust our actions in a legal manner.  Especially since last week, whatever  you're arresting us for THIS week ... was legal!

-------------

Okay, this is all hypothetical at this point.  Probably when the bosses get around to it, there will be this 'forgiveness' period when we are warned that we can't do that (whatever "that" turns out to be), but I do hope you understand we don't have a lot of confidence that your bosses are going to be that lenient.

Because you know, we don't trust them at all.  They don't have our best interests at heart; we think this is all a game to them, and the supervisor whose department has the least busts on Friday Night after the law is enacted has to buy the drinks for all the other supervisors.

So maybe if there's something you could think of to do to let us know what the law is really going to be, and make that obvious to us in time for EVERYONE to get the word .. that would be nice.

Not that we really expect the courtesy.

Because we don't really trust you, either.

That's the kind of reputation that ATF has created for itself since ... you know, the Ruby Ridge thing, and the Waco thing, and .... you get the picture.