
Part of the Biden administration’s years-long war on guns, gun owners, and those who make and sell them has been the “zero tolerance” approach ATF inspectors adopted when doing their regular audits of gun store transactions. Before Biden, good faith mistakes such as writing the name of the county in the city box on a 4473 form, were noted by ATF agents. Only serious or repeated errors that were judged as willful were treated as violations of federal law that put an FFL’s license at risk.
Once Biden;s stormtroopers were issued new zero tolerance marching orders early in his administration, however, if a buyer mistakenly entered “USA” in the “county” box on the 4473 and it wasn’t caught by the retailer, that could and frequently was deemed sufficient reason to yank a gun seller’s license. This happened to hundreds of FFLs.
It’s that kind of bureaucratic lunacy that prompted Austin, Texas gun retailer Michael Cargill to sue ATF challenging the agency’s enforcement guidelines. The suit was filed with the help of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and America First Legal. Today we learn that ATF has backed down and has issued new guidance to its field agents withdrawing the zero tolerance standard.
Our attorneys filed a lawsuit in 2022 on behalf of Austin gun store owner @michaeldcargill.
Faced with defeat, the ATF decided to back down.
Learn more about the case: https://t.co/nlUZdI5asn https://t.co/aq2PfUgOHn pic.twitter.com/1ZMpGqcMZN
— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) January 16, 2025
Here’s a press release from the Center for the American Future, part of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, announcing the victory . . .
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) under President Biden has reversed a policy that required inspectors to revoke the federal firearms license (“FFL”) of American gun stores over simple paperwork errors and other non-willful violations of the Gun Control Act.
Together with the Texas Public Policy Foundation and America First Legal, Austin gun store owner Michael Cargill had sued the ATF over the “zero tolerance” approach. The Biden approach was illegal under the Gun Control Act, which only allows revocation for “willful” violations, and the Second Amendment, which protects the rights of Americans not only to own guns, but to purchase them, as well.
The new enforcement guidance reinstates the decades-long understanding that an honest mistake – like writing “USA” in the field for “county” on a background check form – is not a willful violation of federal law. “For purposes of the regulatory provisions of the GCA, the terms ‘willful’ and ‘willfulness’ mean a purposeful disregard of, a plain indifference to, or a reckless disregard of a known legal obligation. Willfulness requires fact specific application of law,” says the new guidance.
Crucially, it also adds that “Not every repeat violation is per se willful. A single, or even a few, inadvertent errors in failing to complete forms may not amount to ‘willful’ failures even where the legal requirement to complete the forms was known.”
In light of his victory, Cargill has filed an unopposed motion to voluntarily dismiss the case, without prejudice, with the trial court.
“The Biden Administration’s zero tolerance approach to paperwork errors has been devastating to businesses. Many gun stores have been forced to close due to the illegal terms of the old enforcement order,” said Matt Miller, senior attorney at TPPF and lead attorney on the case. “The new order effectively restores the old enforcement guidance, which means gun stores don’t have to live in fear of honest mistakes.”
“Freedom wins today, and overreach has no place in a free society,” said plaintiff Michael Cargill. “Faced with defeat, the ATF decided to back down. With that my legal team has shielded all mom-and-pop gun stores in the country.”
“It’s encouraging to see the Biden Administration correct its policy after we filed this lawsuit,” said TPPF attorney Clayton Calvin. “The previous policy as written would’ve resulted in such a significant barrier to firearm access it would’ve impeded the right to bear arms.”
“The ATF seems to have looked at our lawsuit and revised its incorrect application of federal law just as the Court was about to decide this case, and I suspect it would not have gone well for the Biden Administration. This type of lawlessness cannot be permitted. The Biden Administration knew it wasn’t applying the law faithfully, and now that it is on its way out of office — after harming hundreds of FFL license holders, it changed course. This is intolerable to a society based on the rule of law,” said America First Legal counsel Nicholas Barry.
To read the unopposed motion to dismiss the case, click here.
For additional background on the case, click here.
To watch TPPF’s explainer video on the case, click here.
Happy to hear that it has changed but what about all the FFLs that got hosed during this???
either reinstatement or a year of casualties.
Why now? They know an ass kicking is coming. What about all the FFL’s they screwed out of existence? More reason to abolish the ATF in it’s entirety.
imagine how it feels to kick that agency’s ass.
respect, mr. cargill.
i want to purchase something from him.
only thing is, these articles keep mentioning joe “bye, then.” he had little to do with this and nothing to do with anything from now on. except a pile of soon to be announced pardons.
you can’t hear disdain in the written word but humor me when i say, “beat it, nerd.”
This Gun Store Owner Just Forced the ATF to Reverse an Anti-Gun ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy.
h ttps://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/01/16/atf-reverses-anti-gun-zero-tolerance-policy-after-lawsuit-n2650656
The ATF like others did not care about “right and wrong” and did things because the could.
There should be accountability and prosecutions. Merely reversing the policy should not be even nearly enough.
Make them pay for all the damage they did to so many. Perhaps a class action lawsuit brought by all the F F Ls.
What about restoring FFLs who lost their FFL due to this bad policy? I know a local gunsmith who owns a gun store who lost his FFL due Now the family owned store only sells pellet guns and ammo and gunsmith services. It is a travesty that this local family owned business that was in the business for more than 50 years lost their FFL.
Over reach, just one more example of why ATF should go away. “Of the people for the people by the people.”
I get that writing “USA” on a form as your county (probably misreading “county” as “country”) is not a willful violation. But willfulness aside, how can it even be an unwitting violation? Surely such errors are not material (they do no harm to the government’s ability to do whatever they need to do with the data), and so they are not violations at all, but only infractions, prior to any consideration of whether they were willful. How can trained lawyers not see this?
I am a lawyer. WHY would the Plaintiffs agree to dismiss???
Under the next Democratic Administration, the ATF retains the power to do it again. No one should trust the word of ATF or DOJ in the 21st Century!!!
While it remains to be seen, it’s entirely possible there will be no ATF by the next Democratic administration, and it’s entirely possible the Democratic Party will self destruct before the next national election. Democrats continued performance of late with questioning Trump candidates for positions aren’t winning more voters into their ranks, it’s theater for what few remain.
And we haven’t gotten to the investigations yet, for election fraud, corruption with NGO and Ukraine funds, and just where did 800,000 children disappear? We can’t put those issues back inside the box, too many know about it and whistleblowers are stepping forward more than ever. Now that LA has incompetently burned to the ground, even the comfortable celebrities are faced with disasters from a local administration they never questioned. Complete incompetence from their own hired help will black pill a liberal every time.
FFL’s that got shut down probably feel like LA residents who were ticketed for parking near a hydrant. Some have been dry since 2009 when a reservoir was taken off line for repairs. While stopping their overreach is more than welcome, the financial distress and loss of business is going uncompensated – unless they band together in a class action suit.
That is exactly how lawfare works – a legal response to .Gov overreach means you spend 10x the money to get them into court to lose a case, then damages and punitive assessments are forced on who? The TAXPAYER – thru extending the debt and piling even more on our grandchildren. And getting that to stop seems like an impossibility, plus it will lead to a major economic disaster sooner than later. And those who are responsible are still laughing in our face over it.
I urge every gunowner across America to reach out to your US Representative and Senators and demand that the ATF be abolished and abolished now.
It is about time. The A**H***s figured the handwriting was on the walls with Trump taking office. I hope and pray he abolishes every alphabet agency, and brings charges against agents involved in killing innocent people during their raids.
Is there a way to send support to this LFS owner? I’m certain he has a legal bill to pay.