Armed IRS Agents Raid Gun Store, Seize All Gun Purchase Records
The Biden administration is now being accused of compiling data on gun owners after 20 armed IRS agents raided a Montana gun store and seized all gun purchase records.
In January 2022, the Washington Free Beacon revealed that the Biden administration was in possession of nearly one billion gun purchase records of Americans in a database compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Now, as Democrats ramp up their gun-grabbing rhetoric, and the IRS is planning to hire 87,000 new agents, Americans are especially concerned about the threat to their Second Amendment rights.
These concerns were exacerbated on June 14, when “20 heavily armed agents” stormed Great Falls’ Highwood Creek Outfitters, according to store owner Tom Van Hoose.
“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,” Van Hoose explained.
The IRS seized all ATF form 4473s from the store — which are documents that list a gun purchaser’s name, address, birthday, state/city of birth, gender, social security number, and the serial number of any guns purchased in the store.
As Breitbart News notes, “The information is perfectly suited for use in a registry or registry database.”
“They took dozens of boxes full of 4473s — more than a decade’s worth,” explained Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. “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.”
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) appeared on Newsmax’s “The Chris Salcedo Show” on Friday to discuss the issue — calling it “stormtrooper-type activity” and pointing out that “we’re not used to seeing it in our country whatsoever.”
“This is the kind of activity that demonstrates why we were trying to, in the House of Representatives, defund those additional 87,000 IRS agents,” he added.
Rosendale went on to condemn the IRS’ “disturbing” actions and highlighted the concerning nature of the raid’s goal.
“IRS, right? Financial records, accounting, making sure what transactions were taking place? No. They took all of the [ATF] 4473 forms,” he said. “The 4473 forms are what everyone fills out when they go to purchase a firearm, and it’s just a big disclosure to make sure that you don’t have a criminal background or other reasons where you should not be purchasing a firearm.”
“I am concerned that this is another attempt by the IRS to create a database on people that they can target for being conservatives because they want to own their own firearm,” Rosendale added.
