Kansas senator Roger Marshall claims that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives auditors are unduly revoking the licenses of firearms dealers in his state over minor paperwork errors, according to a new letter exclusively obtained by National Review.
The Biden administration’s ATF is refusing to help Kansas gun dealers, especially in rural areas, fix clerical errors and is stripping them of their Federal Firearms Licenses during the auditing process, Marshall, a Republican, said in a Wednesday letter to Steven Dettelbach, the federal agency’s director.
In the past, the ATF has helped firearms sellers fix clerical errors on transaction-related paperwork to ensure they comply with federal law, he wrote.
In the letter, Marshall asked Dettelbach why the federal agency is abusing its auditing power.
“ATF agents operating in Kansas seems to have strayed from the agency’s own mission to ‘partner with communities, industries, law enforcement, and public safety agencies to safeguard the public . . .,’ and is instead jeopardizing the Second Amendment rights of Kansas through hostile and aggressive enforcement actions leading to the unnecessary closures of too many rural, family-owned gun retailers,” the senator wrote.
U.S. representatives Tracey Mann, Jake LaTurner, and Ron Estes, who are all Kansas Republicans, also signed the letter, which was written on behalf of more than 1,300 Federal Firearms License holders in the state.
The letter cites internal documents that were leaked last February, showing how the ATF uses its “zero tolerance” policy to shut down gun shops in the U.S. Under the 2022 directive, the Biden-era ATF holds “zero tolerance for willful violations that greatly affect public safety and ATF’s ability to trace firearms recovered in violent crimes” and revokes the federal licenses of firearms dealers in response to such violations.
Marshall said he and his fellow congressmen find it hard to believe “how an unintentional clerical error meets the definition of a willful violation that greatly affects the public’s safety.”
“We urge you and your agents to find ways to work with our FFL holders to correct clerical errors and help them understand how to correctly complete forms and necessary paperwork for legal weapons purchases,” he wrote in the letter. “We should be encouraging legal arms sales, not punishing them.”
An ATF spokeswoman told National Review on Wednesday that the agency has not yet received Marshall’s letter, “but if we do, we will respond to the Senator directly, as appropriate.” Marshall said his office has previously contacted the ATF regarding this issue, but has received no response from the agency.
“Gun dealers in Kansas respect the laws on the books, filing their transaction paperwork with the ATF as required,” Marshall said in a statement provided to National Review. “Under Joe Biden, the ATF has targeted our state’s gun stores, eager to remove access for thousands of rural Kansans and impeding on their Second Amendment rights. We are asking for cooperation, not closure of family-owned generational businesses.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include a response from an ATF spokeswoman.