Russell Fincher is a high school history teacher, a Baptist pastor, and a part-time gun dealer. He also coaches Little League in his hometown of Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, which has a population of around 151 souls.
Fincher, 52, has had a Federal Firearm License for three years. He has no brick-and-mortar gun shop. He’s what used to be called a “kitchen table FFL.” He sells most firearms at gun shows, including Wanenmacher’s Arms Show in Tulsa.
“Living in Southeast Oklahoma, if you don’t have a gun under $400, people ain’t buying it,” he said Thursday. “Rarely do people come to my house to buy a gun.”
In April, Fincher received a call from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They wanted to do an inspection at his home.
“I told them they were welcome anytime,” Fincher said.
Two ATF inspectors arrived a few days later. They spent three hours in his home. They took pictures of his 4473s with their cell phones, which Fincher has since learned is an illegal, although common practice.
“Honestly, they were way nicer than I expected,” he said. “They said I had some guns that had traces on them, which concerned them. It concerned me too.”
The inspectors returned two weeks later. They had some “concerns” involving Fincher’s penmanship, which they couldn’t read on several forms. They also found he had juxtaposed the model number of a firearm with the weapon’s serial number, which Fincher was attempting to rectify.
On June 16th, 2023, Fincher and his son were packing for a gun show in Tulsa when the phone rang. It was the ATF. They said they wanted to talk to him before he left for the gun show.
“We can come out to your house,” he recalls the agent saying. “I told them sure; I’d be home.”
That is when seven vehicles roared up to his home and disgorged a dozen ATF agents wearing tactical gear, armed with AR-15s.
“It was like the Trump raid. They called me out onto my deck and handcuffed me. My son was there and saw the whole thing. He’s 13 years old,” Fincher said. “They held me on the porch for about an hour. I was surrounded by agents. One by one, they yelled at me about what I was doing. In my mind I decided if they were going to beat me up over every little thing, I’m done. As soon as I said, ‘If you want my FFL, you can have it,’ one of the agents pulled out a piece of paper and said, ‘Well then sign here.’ He had made three copies in case I screwed one up. It was exactly what they wanted. I was shocked.”
As soon as Fincher relinquished his Federal Firearm License, the ATF began loading up his guns, including a Colt Commander, five Glocks, and a mint AK – a Polytech Pre-ban milled under-folder, which is worth thousands of dollars.
Click the link to read the rest of the story: ATF SWAT Team Raids
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