Over a dozen agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) raided the home of an Amish dairy farmer who admitted to local media this week that he had bought and sold a number of firearms over the last several years without a Federal Firearms License.
“I’m not going to deny that I was selling some,” Reuben King told LNP | Lancaster Online.
It’s unclear precisely how many guns King has bought and sold. A tipster told the outlet that King had sold over 600, but King said that “didn’t sound right.”
Pennsylvania allows the private sale of long guns, and King insists he never sold a handgun to anyone. He says he sold mostly to Amish hunters, but he would occasionally sell to non-Amish as well.
The ATF has not charged King with anything yet. Agents in charge would not provide any additional details, citing an ongoing investigation.
“ATF agents, as part of ongoing investigation, executed an enforcement operation at the Cattail Foundry and seized evidence,” on Jan. 12, bureau spokesperson Robert Cucinotta said Monday.
SEE ALSO: NY Senator Wants to Exempt Amish from Certain Handgun Requirements
If King is charged with buying and selling firearms without a license, he’ll be the latest to fall victim to the vague ATF rule that dictates who must obtain a license to sell firearms.
According to the ATF, those “engaged in the business of dealing in firearms” must obtain a license from the bureau. But nowhere does the agency define precisely what this means. It does not provide a specific number of firearms or a specific timeframe in which those firearms must be sold for someone to be considered “engaged in the business of.”
King pointed out as much in his interview with Lancaster Online.
“Reuben King pointed out that the government can’t tell him how many guns a person may sell or over what timeframe before a license is required,” the outlet reported.
Instead, the ATF offers a vague standard that requires someone to obtain a license if they “repetitively buy and sell firearms with the principal motive of making a profit.” Whether someone falls within this category is up to unelected federal agents to determine.
SEE ALSO: NY SAFE Act Kills Gun Ownership for Amish
Even if a home-based dealer obtains a license, however, the ATF might still come after them. A 2021 article by USA Today and anti-gun advocacy group, The Trace, admitted that these FFLs are most often the targets of ATF investigations.
“These dealers are often targeted by the ATF since they don’t invest in the same inventory tracking and security… and don’t fight Department of Justice attorneys with the same vigor established chains or stores have displayed in revocation examinations over the past several decades,” the report says.
Amish people have religious objections to having their pictures taken in some circumstances, so many are barred from purchasing firearms where they must show photo ID. Because of this, they often rely on private sales to obtain firearms for hunting and self defense.
Amish….hmmmm…..black powder muzzle loaders wtf???
A similar story 10 years into the future will read something like…
Today in rural Pennsylvania, a suspected Amish criminal mastermind successfully evaded, eluded, and outpaced a veritable posse of ATF agents. A spokesperson for the ATF Special Agent in Charge said that the suspects horse & buggy was nearly overtaken, when the batteries suddenly died in the pursuing officers’ electric SUVs. In a rare press conference outside a solar-powered tanning salon, President Kamala Harris vowed to equip all Federal law enforcement vehicles with “exorbitantly long” [sic] extension cords for just such circumstances.
No word yet as to the whereabouts of the Amish suspect, but an agent was quoted as saying there were “piles of evidence” along his last known route.
If he only sold to others who have religious issues with having pictures taken, this has the chance to go all the way to the SC which will promptly ignore it. It hits the first and second amendment.
Resist. Fight.
Another brave move by the BATFE removes a dangerous criminal from society. We can all sleep better tonight knowing that this deadly threat has been addressed.
They threat to Democracy wasn’t 1/6/2021
It IS the swamp in DC directed by radicals like Garland
All these agencies need to be abolished. The “agents” are nothing more than woke boy punks who get to LARP on citizens for simply exercising their “constitutional rights” which seem to mean less and less with each passing day. We’re witnessing the controlled demolition of Freedom using these agencies and the cowardly order following boot lickers who repeatedly remind us their entire philosophy revolves around the “do as i say not as i do” rule. Every weak hearted, simple minded, action hero wannabe LARP bitch boy should learn to fellate the barrel of their own AR and swallow the “load”
Pennsylvania? Where at? Not in the article.
““I’m not going to deny that I was selling some,” Reuben King told LNP | Lancaster Online.”……This would indicate that the Farmer was from the Lancaster area.
Atleast they didn’t shoot his dogs, or cows.
Can’t have any dangerous bearded men running around the forests with shotguns and birdshot…..we can all sleep better tonight, eh?🤣
They needed over a dozen agents to go to a Amish dairy farm. What a joke..
A “tipster”? What a cowardly anus.
And the ATF…. they are really being great heros, here…. arresting the evil Amish. What a joke.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
As often as not, the anonymous “tipster” is the fed at the next desk.
Snitches get stitches, but only if they survive the much needed beatdown.