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Notes -
Or it just means he was selling within his bubble of libertarian firearms enthusiasts, who very rarely commit crimes involving firearms(other than possessing them) and have virtually no overlap with the people who do so regularly.
I do agree with you that he should do the paperwork and get set up as an FFL if he’s going to be buying and selling guns on the regular. ‘Gun dealers need to be licensed’ is a reasonable law and you should follow it. At the same time, a no-knock raid with little justification is a distinctly suboptimal way of enforcing it.
As others have pointed out in this thread though, it likely would have been impossible for him to get and maintain an FFL without also getting heavily harassed.
If you are selling somewhere between 5-200 guns a year you are in legal grey zone. Too small for FFL. Too many sales for private sale loophole. The exact edges are unclear.
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