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Fed. district court rules for FFL
Posted by David Hardy · 18 September 2008 02:35 PM
Story here. The court turned down the usual rationale for license revocation, that a continuing series of errors proves the required "willfulness." I always thought that shaky. To log a firearm out to a customer requires 43 entries, if we count the 4473 and the bound book. If we suppose a human error rate of only a tenth of one percent that would still mean one error per 20 firearms. And that can't be changed by the dealer getting a warning; he still has to use human beings.
I can see why they would want to appeal, they need their vague, arbitrary, and capricious definition of "willful" to remain vague, arbitrary, and capricious. This offers up precedent that paperwork errors are simply that, human errors.
However, if they do appeal, I expect the defense to use the recent revelation that ATF has lost 76 firearms and over 500 laptop computers to attack the credibility of the ATF as they are the premier firearms law enforcement agency. After all, if the ATF makes human errors and loses guns, how can Joe Citizen be expected to be a better custodian of the firearms he is responsible for.
I'm not a lawyer, have never had a law class, don't play one on tv, and haven't stayed at a holiday inn express in over a year, so I'm probably wrong about the legal aspects of this case.