The owners of G2 Sports Products, an Indianapolis gun store, have surrendered their federal firearms licenses and had their inventory seized by the ATF after a months-long investigation allegedly revealed multiple violations of federal firearms law. According to the ATF the store, “knowingly transferred handguns to an out-of-state resident, made false entries in records, failed to report multiple sales of handguns and knowingly transferred firearms to a prohibited person.”

The owners surrendered the federal license for the store and none of them will be eligible to reapply or engage in any way in the business of dealing guns.

Approximately 390 firearms, silencers and receivers including rifles, shotguns and handguns were seized. They had a total approximate value of $224,000.

Prior to the seizure, an indictment was filed against Scott Genung, a convicted felon. Police made several undercover gun purchases from Genung, who allegedly processed the sales himself. Officers say they observed him carrying a firearm on his person during those sales.

He allegedly indicated to the undercover officers that he was responsible for many of the store operations, including placing an order from a distributor for a gun.

Gun control advocates claim that it’s impossible for the ATF to go after “bad apple” dealers, but clearly that’s not the case. The ATF found what sound be pretty clear violations of the law, and they’re shutting down the store and kicking the owners out of the firearms business completely. The ATF can absolutely deal with “bad apples”. It’s just that some of the gun stores gun control advocates claim are bad apples really aren’t.

The fact is that while there are some genuine bad actors, there are also shops that may end up with a larger number of guns sold that end up in getting traced simply because of a high volume of sales. ATF regulations are no joke either. Far from being lax, ATF can shut down gun stores for simple paperwork violations, much less allowing guns to be transferred to a prohibited person, as was allegedly the case here.

I’m happy to hear the owners’ side of the story, but given the fact that they’ve surrendered their licenses and are permanently barred from working in the gun industry, I’m guessing whatever the story is, they didn’t feel like they were likely going to win in a court of law. It was likely an offer of “take this deal or we can go to trial and put you in federal prison for several years.” It looks like that’s where employee Scott Genung is headed, at least based on the evidence the ATF says it has.

Meanwhile, anti-gun activists intent on shutting down all gun stores will continue to insist that the ATF doesn’t have the tools it needs to go after shops like G2 Sports. If they acknowledge this story at all, it will only be to portray G2 Sports as indicative of all gun stores, and to use this case to argue for more gun laws and regulations that will put put more independent shops out of business. In that sense, the owners of G2 Sports didn’t just hurt themselves, but responsible gun dealers as well.