A Weaponized ATF Was Too Busy Shutting Down Legitimate Gun Dealers to Bother With a Stolen Rifle and a Falsified 4473

When Paul Szabo purchased the Shooter’s Emporium in 2020, which is located just a short 45-minute drive north of Indianapolis, he got some bad vibes from an employee he later terminated. Szabo’s fears were quickly confirmed. An in-house audit revealed that a Ruger American Rimfire rifle worth about $350 was missing, and evidence led directly to the former employee.

“I gave him the opportunity to return the rifle. He told us to f— off, so we called the police,” Szabo told the Second Amendment Foundation.

Just a few days later, in July 2022, Szabo also submitted a report to ATF.

Six months later, the suspect was arrested for the state crimes of theft and forgery: 35-43-4-2(a)/F5: Theft-Use when property stolen is a firearm, and 35-43-5-2(b)(4)/F6: Forgery-Def, w/intent to defraud, makes/utters written instrument.

Now, nearly three years later, Szabo has been waiting for a trial date, and the suspect was hired by a competing gun shop, where he’s been very busy.

“He hacked all of our social media accounts. He hacked our special-order accounts. We started losing customers to the other dealer, who denied he ever worked there,” Szabo said. “The next thing that happened is the prosecuting attorney sent me an email and had me look at a document. It was a 4473 for the rifle in question, filled out, completed and signed and stamped by another local FFL. It had a different name that signed the 4473 for the rifle, which has been sitting in the police department’s lockup.”

Szabo is livid that the case remains in state court rather than federal court and being prosecuted by ATF.

“We just sent off another letter to the ATF asking how can I have a 4473 from a different gun shop. We’ve got more people involved—another FFL. Why don’t we have a federal case?” he asked. “It’s been three years. The local prosecutor pretty much doesn’t contact me at all. I really have a bad feeling about this.”

Szabo has no idea why ATF isn’t prosecuting the case. “I don’t know why they’re not charging him federally, especially with a falsified 4473 for a gun that’s sitting in Kokomo’s police department,” he said. “The trial has been scheduled but then moved six to eight times in the three years that this has been going on.”

The next trial date has been scheduled for late April.

Takeaways

Calls and emails to ATF’s national media inquiry line weren’t answered or returned, which is not a surprise. ATF has only responded once to calls stemming from more than a hundred Second Amendment Foundation stories over the years.

Szabo’s case should have been investigated solely by ATF. The suspect should be facing federal, not state charges.

The ATF would be more competent at dealing with things like a fraudulent Form 4473 than any Kokomo Police Department detective because legally it’s not their area of concern. It’s a federal crime, after all, or at least it should be.

So, why did ATF take a pass on this case, which occurred during Joe Biden’s presidency? At least that question can be answered: It wasn’t big enough.

Szabo’s problems were allegedly caused by a former gun shop employee who wasn’t the shop owner. That means ATF couldn’t strut in, close down another gun shop, and force the owner to turn over all of their guns…so they didn’t take the case. That much is definitely easy to prove.

Instead, ATF told the local police to pursue the case, even though they lack the proper training and resources. Besides, at the time, the weaponized ATF was busy trying to show Biden and other Democrats that they were more than capable of doing their job and tackling the big cases, even though most of them went bad very quickly.

Just ask people like Russell Fincher, Mark Manley or Brian Malinowski’s widow if you need more information about how the ATF really operates.

 

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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.