yeah, I agree. I have never dealt with the ATF, but I have dealt with environmental regulators. If you have a problem, you fix it immediately and tell them you fixed it and set up procedures to make sure it doesn't need to be fixed again. Not trying to judge this. Govt regulators can make your life hell. Gotta work self defense in more ways than one.
What I don't like is the apparent attitude of the agent that everyone is guilty and breaking the law, they just haven't found the evidence yet.
I've dealt with the DNR, DEA, and ATF in my role in my last job. while the DNR was state, the ither two were federal.
DEA was the most lax, or at least the most understanding with our processes. We processed hundreds of kilos of morphine, codeine, and fentanyl derivitives. We kept very good records, but If a chemist were to charge, say, 5kgs of morphine to a reactor, and the gross, tare, net were off by 5gm on a container, the DEA would be peperfectly fine and not call it a diversion if 2 chemists witnessed the process.
I found the DEA to be very professional to deal wwith.
The DNR had odd rules, uf they found you in accidental violation, they made allowances for you to update your practices and systems.
The DNR was strict, but nit hard to deal with.
The ATF audited us on our ethanol records (for taxation purposes). I found the atf agents to be petty dick heads. They had the least important auditing job but certainly made up for their relative unimportance with their little man syndrome.
Whatever respect I may have had for them before as at least law enforcement agents rapidly approached zero.
