ATF agents visit private citizens without warrants, demand to see guns

A video circulating social media shows Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents showing up at the home of a private Delaware resident, demanding to see the firearms he purchased. The two agents, who were accompanied by a state trooper, confirmed that the man did nothing wrong. All were wearing tactical gear and none had a warrant. 

“All I’m doing is verifying that you have it, you got two different purchases,” one of the agents says in the video, which was captured by a Ring camera. “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?” 

“They’re in my safe,” the homeowner said. 

“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,” the agent responded. 

 “That’s it?” the homeowner asked. “Yep,” the agent said before the second agent added, “It will take five seconds.” 

The state trooper said, “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.” A straw purchase is when someone purchases a firearm for someone else. 

“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,’” the state trooper added. 

“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,” the first agent said. “That’s all that is. You did nothing wrong – absolutely zero. I noticed you were stopped in Philly though with one of your guns?” 

“We’ll wait if you feel more comfortable,” the policeman said. 

 “I’m okay. I just – I didn’t expect,” the homeowner began before the first agent interjected. 

“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,” the agent said before the homeowner said he does have all his guns. 

The second agent then appeared to threaten the man that they would return if he did not show them his guns. 

“We can look at them and write which ones you just bought, so we can save a trip from coming back,” he said. “We’ll confirm that you have them.” 

The man eventually brought out one rifle, which satisfied the agents who then left. 

Now Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) is demanding answers. 

“I’m extremely concerned by the reports of a surprise and unwarranted firearms inspection conducted by the ATF,” he told The Washington Times. “This incident occurred the same day Steve Dettelbach was sworn in to head the ATF, and it is exactly the kind of action I was concerned about under his leadership. ATF agents did not have a search warrant, and they had to rely on pressuring the homeowner for consent.” 

“The ATF must answer questions on why they decided to conduct an illegal search, especially since the homeowner had done nothing wrong,” he added. “These actions by the federal government are unsettling, and they have no business going door-to-door to see who owns firearms. I fear that there will be more illegal inspections to come as the Left continues its assault on our 2nd Amendment rights. Congress should investigate this immediately.” 

The ATF told The Washington Times that the agents' actions were “entirely appropriate.”