Licensee responsibilities - firearms owners - column
Licensee Responsibilities
A recent incident involving a Federal Firearms Licensee making sales of a large number of handguns to an individual who subsequently diverted these firearms to criminal use, highlighted the need for a higher level of licensee responsibility. This licensee felt that the completion of the 4473 and multiple purchase forms fulfilled his responsibility as a dealer and “the less he knew, the better” regarding what was being done with the firearms once they left his premises.
Licensees must remember that their Federal Firearms License is a privilege, not a right, and that privileges can be taken away for irresponsible action on their part.
Being licensed as a dealer does not require an FFL holder to make a sale to any customer who comes into their store. With the proliferation of civil suits today, a licensed dealer would be well advised to use good judgement in making any sale of a firearm. It would be much easier and far less expensive to defend yourself for not selling a firearm to someone who you felt should not have a firearm, than defending yourself in a wrongful death suit for negligently selling a firearm to someone you should not have made the sale to.
In instances where you have either made a sale to an individual and then had cause to wonder about the sale or had someone attempt to make a purchase where you declined to make the sale, notify your local ATF office.