Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles
| Decision Date | 21 April 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-2329.,02-2329. |
| Citation | 365 F.3d 281 |
| Parties | BLAUSTEIN & REICH, INCORPORATED, d/b/a Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bradley A. BUCKLES, Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Stephen Porter Halbrook, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellant. Lewis Stanley Yelin, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Richard E. Gardiner, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellant. Robert D. McCallum, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney, Mark B. Stern, Michael S. Raab, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; Joel J. Roessner, Deputy Associate Chief (Litigation), Abigail Roth, Lauren L. Bernick, Office of Chief, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.
Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, and NIEMEYER and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Shedd wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Wilkins and Judge Niemeyer joined.
In February 2000, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (the Bureau)1 sent letters to approximately 450 federally licensed firearms dealers — fewer than one percent of the more than 80,000 such dealers throughout the nation — demanding information relating to their acquisitions of secondhand firearms in 1999. Blaustein & Reich, Inc., d/b/a Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop (Bob's Gun Shop), a licensed dealer in Norfolk, Virginia, is one of the dealers that received this demand letter.
Rather than produce the information requested by the Bureau, Bob's Gun Shop filed suit, claiming the Bureau exceeded its statutory and regulatory authority in issuing the demand letters. Bob's Gun Shop also asserted that the criteria used by the Bureau to target the selected dealers were arbitrary and capricious.
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Bureau, and Bob's Gun Shop now appeals.2 We affirm.
The Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, Pub.L. No. 90-618, 82 Stat. 1213 (1968)(codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. §§ 921-930), authorizes the Bureau to license manufacturers, importers, and dealers of firearms. See 18 U.S.C. § 923(a).3 The Bureau is required to issue a license to any applicant that meets all the statutory qualifications and agrees to abide by the applicable laws. Id. § 923(d). A manufacturer, importer, or dealer that holds such a license is commonly referred to as a federal firearms licensee (an FFL). Bob's Gun Shop is an FFL dealer.
Pursuant to both its statutory and regulatory authority, the Bureau requires all FFLs to maintain extensive records relating to the firearms they manufacture, import, receive, or sell. See, e.g., id. § 923(g)(1)(A); 27 C.F.R. § 478.121(a).4 For dealers, this documentation includes the name of the firearm's manufacturer and/or importer, model, serial number, type, caliber or gauge, date of sale or receipt, and name and address of the transferor or transferee. 27 C.F.R. § 478.125(e). The Bureau has some access to this information but only as authorized by statute or regulation. The Bureau may, for instance, inspect an FFL's records without warrant to determine the disposition of a particular firearm during the course of a criminal investigation. 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(1)(B)(iii). The Bureau may also require FFLs to provide record information by telephone to help determine the disposition of a particular firearm in the course of a criminal investigation. 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(7). An FFL must respond to such a request within twenty-four hours. Id.
Based on its authority to request record information from FFLs, the Bureau has created a firearms tracing system to track the movement of a particular firearm from its manufacturer to the retail dealer and ultimately to the firearm's first retail buyer. The Bureau has established the National Tracing Center (NTC) to conduct this tracing function. A firearms trace typically ensues after a law enforcement agency recovers a "crime gun" — a firearm recovered from a crime scene or from a suspect, felon, or other prohibited person. J.A. 85. The law enforcement agency — local, state, federal, or international — contacts the NTC. Based on the make of the firearm, the NTC contacts the manufacturer of the firearm and tracks the movement of the weapon through the chain of distribution ultimately to the FFL dealer who sold the firearm to the first nonlicensee, a retail purchaser. When requested by the NTC, the FFL in the chain of distribution must report all or any portion of the information it is statutorily required to maintain for each firearm, including the name and address of the individual or entity who purchased the firearm.
This tracing system breaks down once the Bureau determines that the first retail buyer sold or otherwise transferred the firearm to another because retail buyers are not required to maintain records of any "secondhand" sales or transfers. The Bureau must then rely primarily on investigative interviews of the individuals involved in the secondhand chain of distribution to have any hope of tracing a firearm. These interviews are so time-consuming and often unproductive that the Bureau rarely performs an investigative trace of a secondhand firearm.
FFL dealers, on the other hand, are required to maintain records of secondhand firearms that they receive or sell. 27 C.F.R. § 478.125(e). This information, however, is difficult for the Bureau to access, because once the initial chain of distribution among FFLs is broken, the Bureau does not typically know which FFL dealer received or sold a particular secondhand firearm without conducting an investigative trace.
In the last several years, the Bureau has increased its efforts to trace crime guns and analyze the data relating to these traces.5 Based on traces performed in 1999, the Bureau determined that just 1.2% of FFL dealers — approximately 1,000 of the more than 80,000 FFL dealers — accounted for more than half of all crime guns traced. During this same period, the Bureau also determined that approximately 450 FFL dealers had traced to them ten or more crime guns with a "time-to-crime" of three years or less. Time-to-crime is the time from the retail sale of a firearm to the time it is recovered at a crime scene or is traced.6 The average time-to-crime is six years.
Based on this data, the Bureau sent demand letters to the approximately 450 FFL dealers identified as having ten crime guns with a time-to-crime of three years or less. The demand letter required the selected FFLs to produce certain record information relating to all secondhand firearms it acquired in 1999. Bob's Gun Shop was among the FFL dealers that received the Bureau's letter. It is undisputed that Bob's Gun Shop had ten crime guns with a time-to-crime of three years or less traced to it in 1999.7
The Bureau's demand letter stated that its research revealed that "a high volume of gun traces with a short `time-to-crime' may be an indicator of illegal firearms trafficking." J.A. 54. The Bureau also asserted that the targeted dealers' unusually high number of traces of new firearms "may mean that you are also selling a high volume of secondhand guns used in crime." Id. The letter assured the targeted FFL dealers, however, that the data did not necessarily indicate that the FFL dealers had violated any gun control laws or regulations. Nevertheless, the Bureau demanded that the targeted FFL dealers provide some limited information regarding all of the secondhand firearms they acquired in 1999 for use in tracing secondhand firearms recovered at crime scenes.
Rather than comply with the Bureau's demand letter, Bob's Gun Shop filed suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. In particular, Bob's Gun Shop claimed that the demand letter exceeded the Bureau's statutory authority to obtain information and, in effect, created a national firearms registry. It also alleged that the Bureau's criteria for selecting the FFL dealers — those having ten crime gun traces without any consideration of the particular dealer's sales volume — was arbitrary and capricious.
In a thorough opinion, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Bureau as to all of the claims raised by Bob's Gun Shop. Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 220 F.Supp.2d 535 (E.D.Va.2002). After the district court denied its motion to alter or amend the judgment, Bob's Gun Shop filed this appeal.
We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Bryant v. Bell Atl. Md., Inc., 288 F.3d 124, 132 (4th Cir.2002). Although we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party,8 we review any conclusions of law de novo. Dixon v. Edwards, 290 F.3d 699, 710 (4th Cir.2002). In particular, we review questions of statutory interpretation de novo. United States v. Abuagla, 336 F.3d 277, 278 (4th Cir.2003).
Bob's Gun Shop argues that the Bureau may seek records and information under its demand letter authority only in the course of a criminal investigation or if the FFL has failed to comply with other reporting requirements of the GCA. We disagree.
As part of the Firearms Owners' Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-308, § 103, 100 Stat. 449 (1986), which amended the GCA, Congress gave the Bureau broad authority to seek, by demand letter, all record information that FFLs are required to maintain. The 1986 amendment provides:
Each licensee shall, when required by letter issued by the [Bureau], and until notified to the contrary in writing by the [Bureau], submit on a form specified by the [Bureau], for periods and at the times specified in such letter, all record information required to be kept by this chapter or such lesser record information as the [Bureau] in such letter...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Nat'l Shooting Sports Found., Inc. v. Jones
...See J & G Sales Ltd. v. Truscott, 473 F.3d 1043 (9th Cir.2007) (Justice O'Connor, sitting by designation); Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 365 F.3d 281 (4th Cir.2004); RSM, Inc. v. Buckles, 254 F.3d 61 (4th Cir.2001). Although ATF's Demand Letter here is arguably broader than the letter......
-
Almy v. Sebelius
...and careful,” but at the same time, this Court “must not substitute its judgment for that of the agency.” Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 365 F.3d 281, 291 (4th Cir.2004). See also Apollo Medical, Inc. v. Sebelius, 2010 WL 2132648, at *8, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52452, at *21 (E.D.Mo. Apr......
-
Pasco v. Protus IP Solutions, Inc.
...of statutory construction, only individuals (and not corporations) have standing in this matter. See Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 365 F.3d 281, 288 n. 15 (4th Cir.2004) (when statute is unambiguous on its face, courts must derive the meaning of the statute from the words chosen by th......
-
U.S. v. Thompson-Riviere
...withdrawal motion is for abuse of discretion, we review this question of statutory interpretation de novo. Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 365 F.3d 281, 286 (4th Cir.2004). We hold that the district court misinterpreted § 1403(a) by requiring proof of Using common sense as a guide, Kofa......