ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Sun Jan 30, 2022 7:56 amCan you quote the portion of the article that says he is being charged with selling firearms commercially without a license? I can't find it anywhere in the article having read it several times.
You have to put two and two together. I'm using the term "commercially" in the generic sense as in having to do with commerce or business. Not in some legal sense specifically related to firearms laws.
The first paragraph lays out the charges (or accusation) against him as he apparently hasn't yet been charged:
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized firearms from a Leacock Township property earlier this month and an Amish farmer at the property acknowledged selling guns without a federal firearms license.
The latter half of the article describes under what circumstances a license is required. Namely the selling of firearms for business or profit (i.e. commercially).
A 15-page document posted to the bureau’s site and titled, “Do I need a license to buy and sell firearms?” states that the federal Gun Control Act “requires that persons who are engaged in the business of dealing in firearms be licensed by the bureau.”
“Determining whether you are ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing in firearms requires looking at the specific facts and circumstances of your activities,” the document said, noting no federal law sets a “‘bright-line’ rule for when a federal firearms license is required.”
The ATF document says a person “will need a license if you repetitively buy and sell firearms with the principal motive of making a profit.” Licenses are not required for someone who engages in “occasional sales of firearms from your personal collection,” the document added.
Anyone who “willfully engages in the business of dealing in firearms without the required license is subject to criminal prosecution, and can be sentenced to up to five years in prison, fined up to $250,000, or both,” the document said.
If Federal attorneys decline to prosecute and they apologize and give him back all his guns then we will know that they were mistaken.
On the other hand, if they decide to proceed with a trial or much more likely, some sort of plea agreement and settlement of the case then we will know the opposite is true. That they do have a case against him for illegally selling firearms without a license. They will likely follow the money and if this activity was a source of business income then he will likely have been in violation of the law.
Often in cases like this when they start pulling at threads they find new charges such as tax evasion if there was undeclared income involved. If he was earning say $25K or $50K a year from under-the-table firearms sales and not declaring the income then he may be more in trouble with the IRS than the ATF. But that is all just speculation. We will know what kind of case they have against him, if any, when the time comes and charges are filed. And they will have to fish or cut bait. They can't just seize his weapons and keep them forever. They have to proceed with charges or give them back.
