U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Dave Nagel, one of three co-owners of Black Metal Firearms in Mesa, Arizona, said there was something odd about the inspector the ATF sent to audit his gun shop late last year.
Pamela Scott, an Industry Operations Investigator, or IOI, from ATF’s Phoenix Field Division showed up in December, 2021. Her audit lasted two months and concluded in February, which ruined more than a few Christmases.
“People ask me why I waited to July to go public about this,” Nagel said. “The public needs to know that the crazy stuff the government is accused of doing, they’re actually doing.”
Nagel and Scott clashed from the very beginning. All of his records are on paper. Nothing is computerized.
“She asked me why our stuff wasn’t digital,” Nagel said. “I told her I wouldn’t trust her with our digital info.”
During another exchange, Scott told Nagel he had a lot of “gun nuts” frequenting his shop.
“I told her we prefer ‘gun enthusiast,’” Nagel said. “She said she prefers ‘gun nuts,’ and she works for the ATF?”
Scott found nothing in the shop’s books other than a few minor clerical errors. There were no missing firearms or other significant problems.
“She said she was going to put us in for revocation, and that it may change as it goes up the chain, but that was her recommendation,” Nagel said. “We didn’t sell guns to the drug cartels, like the ATF did. Everything we deal in is something that can readily be sold to a customer. There’s nothing here outlandish. We sell normal stuff to the common man, and she treated us like drug dealers.”
An Illegal Gun Registry
Nagel noticed that Scott always had two cell phones – a government-issue phone and her personal cell.
This became important when he caught her copying pages from his A&D Book – using her personal cell phone.
The ATF requires gun dealers to maintain an Acquisition and Disposition book – a log of every firearm that’s acquired by the shop, as well as personal information of the buyers.
“Once she started recording the information from our books, I confronted her. I was concerned she was creating a database,” Nagel said. “She claimed that copying our records with her personal cell phone was ‘part of the purview of her investigation.’”
Nagel has retained Scottsdale, Arizona attorney Derek Debus to help him fight the revocation of his Federal Firearm License.
Debus reacted strongly when told of Scott’s actions.
“There’s no reason for her to be taking photographs of my client’s data,” Debus said. “It’s illegal. There are rules against it.”
Nagel took several videos of Scott copying his records and posted them on his social media. The videos have gone viral.
ATF Declines to Comment, Again
Scott declined to comment.
“Thank you for the email and yes, I see that you are calling me. I would appreciate you contacting our division PIO Cody Monday with any questions regarding my inspection of Black Metal Firearms. He may be able to answer any questions that you have at this time,” Scott said in an email.
Cody Monday, public information officer for ATF’s Phoenix Field Division, said he could not comment because the investigation was ongoing.
Brendan Iber, ATF’s Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office similarly declined to comment.
Takeaways
The ATF has recently come under fire for warrantless home inspections, questionable arrests, ignoring federal open-records laws and inflating “ghost gun” numbers, in the hopes that Congress will inflate its budget.
The agency is clearly ramping up their enforcement efforts as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on “rogue” gun dealers, which has caused FFL revocations to skyrocket a staggering 500%.
The Black Metal Firearms audit and the actions of ATF’s IOI clearly show – yet again – the agency is out of control.
The ATF is willing to do whatever it takes for a pat on the head from the current administration – even violate the law. This needs to be stopped immediately. They need to be brought under control, because their history proves that the ATF’s mistakes often end in bloodshed.
This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.
About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
The BATFE’s entire purpose is to infringe on the Constitutional rights of citizens. FBATFE and abolish that clown show! They are usurping Congressional authority with regs and rules that create and alter laws, which they have zero authority to do. They are power hungry authoritarians with thin skin and no respect for the rule of law or the Bill of Rights.
Federal “law enforcement” is weaponized, illegitimate, unscrupulous, and totalitarian. There are NO “good cops” to be found there. They are Jack Booted Thugs who deprive peaceable Americans of their Rights under color of law and conspire with tyrants to do the same (both felonies).
The day is RAPIDLY approaching when Americans are going to have to choose between literally fighting for liberty or accepting tyranny without a fight. This nation is at an inflection point and there will be no do-overs.
The US government sucks. Time for a reset. FJB
OF COURSE ATF is building a registry, even though it’s illegal. Only a fool would assume otherwise, since there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
A Blind Identification Database System or BIDS would be vastly superior.
No government – federal, state, county, city, sheriff, PD, whatever – can be trusted to see the names of buyers and not keep them.
Looks as though the first book in Matthew Bracken’s trilogy, “Enemies Foreign And Domestic”, draws closer and closer to becoming a reality.
I can’t think of anytime in Earth’s planetary timeline & twistory when any Socialist/Marxist of Fascist country thrived from or b/c of that political ideology. I call however think of several counties that democided millions of it’s citizens. Steal the Scientist’s from Germany (Operation Paperclip). Pay the Scientist’s via Fed Reserve’s SS hush $$$ payment system so that it’s kept on the down-low & out of general Publix’s preview & ignorance. Develop those scientific advancements into an American Empire – 4th Reich & then sell that technology to the Russian/Chinese/Korean/Iran controlled opposition Bad Guys. That’s just one of the many… Read more »
Nothing knew they have been doing this type of thing for decades.
The ATF needs to be disbanded as unconstitutional.
That’s it.
They do not have any authority to make law and that’s what they do.
Disband disband disband.
And the The NFA with it.
Was there a legal precedent for that agent to do that and was her cell phone private or government issue. The ATF agent should have asked for copies of the records using a subpoena issued by a judge. The legal argument should be that the agent could have shared this information on a unsecured cell phone that even the worst hacker could retrieve let alone Google and Alexa . Even in business there is a expectation of privacy to company records they are not open to every employee or in some cases not even available from one department to another.… Read more »
Next time I am in Mesa the blond and I are visiting with cash in hand. Lee, thank you for a great catch. Now, ATF legal geniuses, riddle me this: so how does a cell phone photo conform to your chain of evidence policies and procedures? Waiting for answer………………crickets. Plainly there is more to the story. So, should the customer base be warned that ATF may be using the customer data in the log to abuse customers? More 1 am doorbell operations? Learn these words. Rogue Federal Agent. Rogue Federal Agency. Rogue Federal Government. Add them up and you have… Read more »