Beware of the Amish Cartel  by Tom Reynolds

No arrests have been made and authorities are keeping mum about a raid on a property in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country, around Lancaster. Details are murky, but BATFE agents confiscated an unknown number of guns from the “Cattail Foundry”. Is the BATFE getting ready to accuse an Amish farmer of being an unlicensed gun dealer?

The Amish owner, Rueben King says he is a dairyman and owns about 50 cows. He also admits to selling some long guns (no handguns) to fellow Amish for hunting – and some to non-Amish, too.

The Department of Justice web site has a post, “Do I need a license to buy and sell firearms?”. It states that “persons who are engaged in the business of dealing in firearms be licensed by the bureau.” It says a person “will need a license if you repetitively buy and sell firearms with the principal motive of making a profit,” but not if the person only does “occasional sales of firearms from your personal collection”.

Was King engaged in a gun business, as opposed to just making a few incidental sales? Does BATFE have information that an Amish dairy farmer in Pennsylvania is secretly selling firearms to Mexican drug cartels? (Oh wait, that was the Obama administration!) Usually, liberals target law abiding citizens in their gun control efforts but, in this case, did they accidentally stumble across a real law breaker?

The point is not to take a position on this specific incident, as the facts are not yet known, but to show how misdirected liberal gun control efforts are.

Is the Biden administration familiar with the medical term triage, where the urgency of the medical issue is evaluated so that the most urgent can be given the priority? Liberals are screaming about gun violence. How much of a priority to BATFE should King have been? How many violent crimes involving guns have been committed by the Amish (not against the Amish) in the last month?...Year?…Decade? (Go ahead, I’ll wait while you do the research. I’m pretty sure the number approaches zero for all those categories.)

If BATFE proves that King was acting as a gun dealer and stops him, how many violent crimes will BATFE have prevented?

There are more murders in a week in cities (dare I say it, Democrat controlled cities) like Chicago, NYC and St Louis than committed by the Amish over any period. (Again, feel free to do the research and I’ll apologize if I’m wrong but I’m not buying any knee pads, just yet.)

If leftists were serious about reducing gun related crimes, wouldn’t one think that inner city efforts would be more fertile hunting grounds? Stopping one illegal gun dealer in Philadelphia would certainly have more impact on gun violence in Pennsylvania than stopping one unlicensed Amish dealer.

But then again, a big reason for the Left’s gun control efforts is to make them feel good; effectiveness is nice but secondary. And it does add another meaningless statistic to BATFE’s year-end reporting.

Triage is not a priority for the Biden administration, which shuts down pipelines in America but okays them in other countries in the name of Global Climate Change. General Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prioritizes Critical Race Theory ahead of planning the withdrawal from Afghanistan. (I wonder what Milley is reading as Russia builds up forces on the Ukraine’s border?)

To read more articles by SCOPE President Tom Reynolds; go to our Briefings page

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