How many times have we seen videos of some anti-Second Amendment type chopping up their gun? We’ve seen gun groups do it as well. They chop up a gun with a chop saw or some other tool, cutting straight down the middle of the gun.
A few times, they really just cut the barrel, making the guns illegal short-barreled rifles.
Yet at no point do we hear about there being any investigation into these people, despite the video evidence.
For one gun store, though, the rules seem to be different.
Federal agents are investigating an Oklahoma gun store owner who appeared to have tossed hundreds of guns into a dumpster.
Court records said on January 19 an Oklahoma City sanitation worker found nearly 250 guns inside a dumpster located near the International Firearm Corporation, which is owned by Anthony Mussatto.
The worker then reported it to the authorities, who investigated and counted 236 rifles and 12 shotguns. Now, federal agents are looking into whether Mussatto improperly disposed of the weapons. (Mussatto did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment.)
Investigators in late 2022 said Mussatto asked agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms — the federal law enforcement agency tasked with investigating and overseeing the use of firearms and explosives, among other areas— to destroy the weapons, citing a manufacturer’s defect.
There are, however, very specific ways to dispose of unwanted guns, according to a guide published online by the ATF.
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After Mussatto contacted the ATF, he received instructions to slice the faulty guns in three different areas, according to a search warrant dated January 26.
Investigators who examined the guns in the dumpster wrote that there was a “single cut through one side of the magazine-well that extended up to the ejection port.”
Investigators say the weapons were still functional, which I highly doubt.
Still, a case can be made that Mussatto failed to comply with the rules, even after asking just what they were. That’s neither here nor there to me.
What bothers me is the double standard.
Anti-gun groups and individuals do all kinds of things to supposedly dispose of guns, yet absolutely none of them seem to be doing it in accordance with the ATF’s rules. Not a single one.
Yet it also seems that none of them get investigated for it. They’re breaking the rules too, so why do they get a pass? Is it because they share a mission with many in the ATF?
I know, that sounds a bit conspiracy theory-ish, but it’s not difficult to see the discrepancy in enforcement and wonder why that’s the case. From there, it’s a simple step toward assuming that the ATF just doesn’t want to punish anti-gunners for some reason.
Considering gun control groups typically want to further empower the ATF, it’s not difficult to imagine why the ATF wouldn’t want to punish them for their rulebreaking.
And that’s a big problem.
While law enforcement always has some discretion in determining who to prosecute and who not to, the idea that the ATF is basically creating a different set of rules for those who seek to empower them is problematic at a very deep level.