A law-abiding homeowner was stunned when the Delaware State Police and two ATF agents showed up on his front porch demanding to see his legally-acquired firearms. Click here to follow Todd on TRUTHSOCIAL.
The gun owner, who is a small business owner, apparently showed up on a government list because he had recently purchased several weapons. The man, who asked not to be identified, reached out to The Truth About Handguns.
“The older ATF agent told him they were assigned to a task force investigating straw purchases. A straw purchase – a federal felony – occurs when someone buys a firearm on behalf of another person, who is unable to legally purchase a firearm themselves,” the website reported. “The agent said they were verifying that people who bought multiple firearms still had the guns in their possession. The homeowner had bought seven firearms since January 2022.”
The men acknowledged they did not have a search warrant.
Meanwhile, the homeowner recorded the entire encounter on his doorbell camera. You can watch the entire encounter below.
Agent 1: “All I’m doing is verifying that you have it, you got two different purchases. If you have them, I’m out of here. That’s how quick it is. Yeah. Do you have them with you by any chance?”
Homeowner: “They’re in my safe.”
Agent 1 “If you can unload them and bring them out. We can go out to your foyer here, check them out, write the serial numbers and we’re out of here.”
Homeowner: “That’s it?”
Agent 1: “Yep.”
Agent 2: “That’s it. It will take five seconds.”
Trooper: “The reason we’re out here is obviously gun violence is at an uptick. We want to make sure – we’ve been having a lot of issues with straw purchases. One of the things, indicators we get is someone making a large gun purchase, and then a lot of times we’ve been there and, ‘Oh, those guns got taken.’”
Agent 1: “The idea is that when you purchase more than two guns at a time it generates a multiple sales report and it comes to us and we have to check them out. That’s all that is. You did nothing wrong – absolutely zero. I noticed you were stopped in Philly though with one of your guns?”
Trooper: “We’ll wait if you feel more comfortable.”
Homeowner: “I’m okay. I just – I didn’t expect…”
Agent 1: “Oh no. It just came up. We came here, look, I’m telling you. There’s an email from the federal side saying can you make sure this guy’s got his guns. If you recently purchased a whole bunch of guns, if we can look at them and just scratch them off…”
Homeowner: “I have them all.”
Agent 2: “We can look at them and write which ones you just bought, so we can save a trip from coming back. We’ll confirm that you have them.”
The homeowner agreed to get the firearms, closed the front door while the agents remained on the front porch, unaware they were being recorded.
Trooper “He doesn’t believe we’re cops.”
Agent 1 “I don’t blame him.”
The Truth About Handguns
The homeowner eventually complied with their demands and retrieved one rifle. The agent checked the serial number off of his list. The homeowner asked if he still needed to retrieve the rest of the firearms.
The agents said it wasn’t necessary to see any more. They apologized for the inconvenience, wished the homeowner a good night and left.
Friends, when government agents show up at your front door demanding to see your weapons, you have options. You can either open the door and comply with their demands. Or, you can ask them for a warrant.
No warrant, no guns.
— Frankie Stockes – Reporter (@stockes76) July 20, 2022