Report: 'Heavily Armed' IRS Agents Seize 'Dozens of Boxes' of Sales Records From Montana Gun Store

Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

A Montana gun shop owner says he was targeted by “heavily armed agents” before the store opened on Wednesday. The federal agents seized “dozens of boxes” of ATF Form 4473s, which contain required background-check information on gun purchasers. How to put this, tactfully… WTF is going on?

Tom Van Hoose, the owner of Highwood Creek Outfitters in Great Falls, told KRTV he’s been under surveillance for two years by “state and federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the State of Montana and now the Internal Revenue Service,” according to the news outlet.

Van Hoose surmised the reason behind the close surveillance of his store:

I can only assume that it’s because of the style of weapons that we have and the press that’s so against them. The current administration seems to be hell-bent on getting those guns out of the hands of average Americans.

Boom (pun intended.)

Gun-grabber Joe Biden and his gun-grabber administration have been on a hell-bent mission to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners from the outset of the worst presidency for the American people in U.S. History.

Gun grabbers and their lapdog state media conjure up ridiculous meaningless terms like “gun violence,” “assault rifles,” “weapons of war,” “commonsense gun legislation,” and other such bilge for the ultimate purpose of confiscating firearms from Americans whose right are protected by the Second Amendment.

So the salient question is this:

Under what law do heavily armed IRS agents have the right to confiscate dozens of boxes of background-check information of law-abiding Americans; information which not only contains a gun purchaser’s name, address, birth date, state and city of birth, gender, social security number, but also the serial numbers of all guns purchased?

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Breitbart News on Saturday morning:

I spoke with the shop owner who told me that 20 heavily armed IRS agents from multiple states in our region served a warrant before his business opened. They took dozens of boxes full of 4473s — more than a decade’s worth. This is extremely concerning because it seemingly exceeds the search warrant which limited the scope of the search to financial records.

These aren’t financial records, they’re records of lawful firearm purchases. What the hell does the IRS need with 4473s? We know the ATF in Washington, D.C., is trying to scoop up as many of these purchase records as possible, and that’s what it looks like they’re trying to do here.

Again, under what law? Knudsen then stated the obvious:

There’s a clear and disturbing pattern developing of the Biden administration sending federal agents to harass American gun owners, shops, and manufacturers.

Biden wants to repeal PLCAA so they can shut down gun companies and coerce states to implement ‘red flag’ laws so firearms can be seized without due process. Now, they’re sending federal agents door-to-door in my state to intimidate people.

The PLCAA (Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act) “prohibits civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms, or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others.”

In other words, the Biden administration wants the equivalent of an ability to bring civil liability actions against an automobile manufacturer or dealership, if a driver of one of their models of vehicles kills another driver.

Insane? Of course, it is — in both the hypothetical car analogy and in the case of firearms manufacturers and retailers, as well.

Finally, Knudsen correctly added:

There’s no question about it, this is the most anti-gun administration in the nation’s history.

Again, BOOM.

Look, I’m not a constitutional scholar, but, one more time, what gives the IRS — or any federal agency — the right to arbitrarily seize the non-financial information of law-abiding firearms purchasers?

Joe Biden was unavailable for comment.

The Bottom Line

Gun grabbers define the analogy — “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time” —as well as any other leftist group in America.

Not dissimilar to the left’s insidious attempt to indoctrinate this country’s young children with disgusting, if not immoral, beliefs, those who would ultimately ban all firearms from America’s citizenry if they could get away with it, continue their hell-bent efforts to take one bite at a time out of the Second Amendment.

Needless to say, not only must the gun grabbers be stopped; federal agencies that do the gun grabbers’ bidding must be stopped in their tracks, as well — sooner than later.