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53 Year old Brian Malinowski was killed in an ATF raid. He was a director at the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock. (This airport was named for the Clintons but is unconnected to them personally so we can put our tinfoil hats away for now.) We have no body camera footage of the shooting, they claimed he fired at them and they fired back during their 6am raid.
The search warrant, partially redacted, was released to the public. In it we find they raided him due to his frequent activity of buying and selling firearms without the required FFL licence.
Selling your private gun collection without involving the state is something that has been legal in the US forever, but buying and selling as a business is not. The law is written such that Grandma may sell her deceased husbands musket collection without fear of state reprisal, but you cannot buy bulk AR's and distribute them to the local gang for a big profit. What counts as a business? How many guns can you sell from your collection before you cross the threshold? How fast can you turn around and sell a gun after you buy without fear of breaking the law? This law is ambiguous on this, it is what politicians have referred to as "The gun show loophole". The idea being that you can take your personal firearms and sell them at a gunshow booth (or anywhere) without having to do a background check on potential buyers.
Brian Malinowski is a novel case. He bought and sold 150 guns over a two year period, some of them sold fairly quickly after he purchased them. This was high enough to get him on the ATF's watch list - they tailed his vehicle and observed him at his job at the airport. His job seems unconnected to his firearm hobby as the warrant never accuses him of smuggling through the airport. It heavily implies this is what was happening, mentioning the airport frequently throughout the warrant, but they never suggest that he actually did. It does, however, mention his selling his collection through booths at a gun show to undercover ATF agents.
So what of downstream crimes that have occurred from Malinowski selling these firearms "off the books"? Here the ATF's case seems very weak. Out of the 150 guns sold, only 3 have been directly tied to crimes stated in the warrant. The crimes? All three are marijuana possession during routine traffic stops (marijuana still being very illegal and heavily policed in Arkansas). Personally I think this is extremely petty and very favorable to the late Malinowski's case. There is one other mention of an undercover informant in Canada having a photo of a firearm with a serial number that ties back to Malinowski, with no additional details given.
In my opinion, I believe Malinowski was technically legally in the right despite the high volume of sales. There is no indication he was attempting to profit from selling to criminals/gangs etc. Many people collect firearms and enjoy buying and selling them as others would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on motorcycles or pokemon cards. There is no law in Arkansas against purchasing a handgun and deciding you don't like it for whatever reason and selling it to your neighbor the next day. That said, Malinowski is reported to have been somewhat of an asshole by those who knew him, having previously lost a lawsuit in 2018 in which he sued someone over a mailbox in front of an empty lot after confronting them pretending to be an attorney. Given this and that he was on record stating that his activity was legally protected private collection sales when pressed, and the ATF suggests he continued his activity after he knew they were tailing him, I think it's highly probable he knew what he was doing and was intentionally skirting the boundary of the law in order to provoke a legal confrontation.
This is a good culture war inflection point in the gun control debate. Leftists can point this case as an example that the Gun Show Loophole is in fact, real, and is being exploited by so-called hobbyists selling bulk firearms. Rightist can point to rogue federal agencies abusing ambiguous laws in order to infringe 2A rights by routing around political representation.
*Disclaimer: IANAL etc.
That is an utter abomination of a username. I'm impressed.
Man, as someone who fucking loves guns, it sucks that the one country in the world where a man is free to shoot tannerite in full auto (with tax stamps, and officer, I promise that this is an oil filter, please walk very softly around the dog) does such a poor job of protecting it despite a clear constitutional right.
The ATF is a meme, goons who have far more power to ignore common sense and wider jurisdiction than they deserve. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, one of these isn't like the others. I don't know why Republicans didn't do their level best to de-fang it, especially when they had four years to do so, but I suppose that speaks to the general incompetence of the Trump Admin, or to the perfidy of the Deep State, depending on which of our regulars you ask today.
Was that simply not a priority? I would assume it would receive overwhelming support from the Republican voter base.
To be fair, it's now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In any case, my position remains that the only reason to have a Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is to distribute those goods to Americans in need and to ensure the quality of said goods.
I prefer e-cigarettes, but otherwise can rally behind your flag (I bet $3.50 it has a snake on it, and that's cool). Then again, I don't know if nicotine is easy to synthesize without the plant, so maybe you can ignore my concerns for now.
Isn't AI wonderful?
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Praetor Rykard, is that you?
I'm pretty sure Elden Ring would be a much harder game if the bosses came with AKs of dubious make. Or easier, if you could pick them up.
Pest Threads is pretty much that.
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