Opinion
Virginia – -(AmmoLand.com)- Virginia Citizens Defense League member Chris Weaver sent me this email about his positive experience turning in his bump stocks to the BATFE in Chesterfield, VA for safekeeping until a final determination of the legality of the ban could be decided by the courts.
I wanted to share my good experience with ATF on surrendering my Bump Stocks.
I called the Richmond office (actually Chesterfield) and spoke with Justin Jacobs about surrendering my bump stocks. He was very professional and courteous. He seemed to empathize with my situation and went out of the way to make it convenient for me to turn them in. I expressed concern that ATF would come looking for me and he said he had a lot of other work and that the powers-that-be had not formalized any process.
I mentioned I would not be surrendering them to be destroyed, but only turning them over to avoid any legal issues. He completely understood and told me he’d place them in the evidence safe and not execute a surrender document.
Very professional, caring and compassionate individual.
Chris followed up with another email. Here are the pertinent parts:
[Mr. Jacobs] escorted us into the conference room where we were joined by another agent. We had a nice chat about the process.
I produced my letter with pictures of the bumpstocks to document their condition at turn in (protects both of us). The other agent commented that he had turned his bumpstock in the week before. I was told that there were several agents in the office with similar situations.
Mr. Jacobs completed a transfer sheet, we both signed and the other agent witnessed. Mr. Jacobs asked if he could give my daughter a “badge”, which of course I said yes to. He went to make a copy of the transfer sheet and brought my daughter a lapel pin with the ATF logo. She was super excited. We chatted a few minutes more and then Mr. Jacobs escorted us to the door.
Both agents were super friendly, courteous and compassionate. They certainly do not deserve the picture of gun haters that we often think of when we talk about ATF agents. [Philip Van Cleave: Just another reminder that we should never paint any class of individuals with a broad brush. The bad apples make us forget about the many, many excellent government employees that serve us, from the BATFE to the IRS, and all the agencies in between. My limited experience with the BATFE in the Richmond area has always been very positive.] The whole process took around 15-20 minutes.
All in all, a very nice meeting with a great couple of Agents. I was very pleased with the process.
About Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL):
Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
For more information, visit: www.vcdl.org.