You may have heard some horror stories…. They come intentionally when the owner isn’t there, they “swarm” the building, they are out to get you and won’t stop until they take away your Federal Firearm License…the ATF Industry Operations Investigators (IOI). Let’s talk about the IOI position and see what myths we can dispel.
ATF Assistant Director Marvin Richardson said it best at the Orchid Advisors Firearms Compliance Conference in 2014, when he said started off his presentation by jokingly shouting “Boo”! There truly are industry members that are afraid of the ATF, afraid of that dreaded inspection. A lot of this fear comes from the unknown or from “partial-truth” stories that have been passed around the industry for years. However, if you actually ask many of your neighboring FFLs, several of them will say that their ATF IOI was “nice, helpful, and, not bad”. To relieve some of that fear we thought there are a few things that may be helpful to know:
- ATF IOIs all go through the same onboard training down at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) no matter where they are going in the country.
- The IOIs don’t “make up” their own inspection steps; they have set policies and procedures that dictate the steps of their onsite inspections.
- The IOIs handle the Regulatory functions of the ATF; the Special Agents/ Criminal Investigators handle all criminal matters.
- The ATF IOIs often don’t follow themselves; if they inspect you one year, it’s; likely a different IOI will conduct the next inspection.
- A Supervisor must review the IOIs initial recommendation and their corresponding inspection report and if you are due for a Revocation Hearing, many reviewers are involved.
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