[Jeff Higgins]

I well remember when "kitchen table" FFL's were very, very common. I also remember how hard the ATF hammered those people in an effort to shut each and every one of them down for good. The level of harassment and intimidation became legendary. The ATF succeeded, shutting the vast majority of them down, and jailing far too many for those "minor clerical errors" of the kind any business can make.

They even took down one of Washington's oldest family owned gun shops, Kesselring's. They were in at least their third generation, maybe fourth in the same location. They had an immense inventory of firearms, many of them acquired before WWII, stored in their basement. Anything they had that had been added to their inventory prior to 1968 was, of course, immune to the record keeping requirements of that year's GCA. And yes, they were famous for actually having guns that were not only that old, but that had been in storage in that basement for that long. There were so many that they didn't even know what they actually had.

Good enough customers, those who had become "friends", were allowed to go look for themselves. I would often ask at the front counter, to be answered with "I dunno, let's go look..." and we would often find that oddball that appealed to guys like me.

The ATF decided to target them. Actually, just one agent who had a hard on for them. To "make an example" of them. They showed up about a decade ago demanding records regarding when and from whom each and every gun in inventory was acquired. The ATF knew, of course, that this was impossible. That was the whole point. The family fought, of course, but their resources obviously proved to be no match for the unlimited funds of our government.

Just a horribly unjust abuse of power, all elicited by just one agent. Not trying to scare you off, Rick (I know you better than that), just asking you to be careful. Not so much in how you keep your records, in how "legal" your business is ran, but more so to be very, very leery of their agents. But I'm sure you know that already.

Good luck with your "business". Have fun. Above all, please be careful... that old Chinese curse (one of three) - "may you come to the attention of the authorities". (The other two are "may you live in interesting times", and "may you get everything you wish for".)