'Targeted by big government': Smyrna gun store owners, U.S. representatives decry ATF inspection

Mar. 27—The operators of a popular Smyrna gun store and Republican members of Congress are decrying the store's inspection this week by federal authorities, calling it an overreach by law enforcement.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began an inspection Friday of Adventure Outdoors, the sprawling gun store and shooting range on South Cobb Drive.

"We feel like we're being targeted by big government. ... It just seems to be textbook for government overreach, you're sending in 16 investigators to a family-owned business that's had a good relationship with the ATF and the local community for 40-plus years," said Eric Wallace, the store's manager.

The ATF said the store was randomly selected for a routine inspection, which all federal firearm licensees undergo. The inspection entails looking over records and conducting inventory.

"They are not in trouble," said Nathan Banks, a spokesman for the ATF's Atlanta field division "... This happens to all the federal firearm licensees, they all get inspected in some form or fashion. We don't have a time that we do it, and we don't have to announce it."

Banks said the inspectors will likely wrap up their inspection Thursday or Friday, and the store will probably not be inspected again for another year or two.

The store's management said it was not the ATF inspection that alarmed them, but the number of agents, and the fact that they came from out of state. In the past, the ATF has never sent more than eight inspectors to the store, they said.

"We go through ATF audits, it's kind of part of our business, but this time it's unprecedented because they've sent 16," Eric Wallace said.

Jay Wallace is Eric's father, and the store's founder and owner. He said two inspectors arrived Friday morning, and the store was later informed that 16 would arrive Monday.

Eric Wallace said he called U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, Saturday to tell him about the inspection. The congressman then brought the other three representatives with him.

Loudermilk showed up Monday along with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rich McCormick and Mike Collins.

"This visit was unprecedented," Greene wrote on social media. "The sheer amount of agents from the bluest parts of the country is unusual and unnecessary to conduct a routine audit.

"This is a prime example of Joe Biden and the Democrats weaponizing federal agencies to silence and intimidate their political opponents."

Erik Longnecker, an ATF spokesman, said the store was being inspected by a major inspection team (MIT), which is staffed with investigators from throughout the country.

The teams provide support and assistance to local field divisions with "complex inspections involving large inventories, sites and/or other factors," Longnecker said.

Adventure Outdoors on its website bills itself as "the actual largest gun store in the world."

The Wallaces said they're concerned that the ATF is cracking down on gun stores on the orders of the Biden administration.

"We've heard from President Biden and his administration that they're wanting to put gun dealers out of business that make one error, one clerical error," Eric Wallace said.

In an effort to reduce gun violence, in 2021 the Justice Department announced a new "zero tolerance" policy for "willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk," a White House briefing states.

The ATF is ordered to revoke licenses from gun dealers who break the law, such as transferring guns to people not allowed to have them, failing to run background checks, falsifying records, failing to respond to ATF tracing requests, or refusing to permit ATF inspections.

"We're not perfect ... How can you do as much as we do and be 100% perfect?" Jay Wallace said. "There's not a living individual that can be perfect."

The store is a popular campaign stop for Republicans. Last year, Gov. Brian Kemp spoke there, announcing his support for a bill, which eventually became state law, allowing people to carry guns in public without a permit.

Also last year, Herschel Walker held a campaign rally at the store with Kemp. In 2021, Donald Trump Jr. spoke there in support of gun rights.

On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely speculated to run for president in 2024, will hold an event there.

"We're just doing our job," Banks said. "We have nothing to do with the governor's visit."

Banks added that law-abiding citizens have the right to own and carry guns, and that being inspected does not mean a gun dealer has broken any laws.

"The store has been in business for 45 years, and they have a good standing relationship with ATF. But it's just, their number came up to be inspected," Banks said.

Adventure Outdoors found itself in a legal fight in 2006, when Michael Bloomberg, then-mayor of New York City, sued Jay Wallace, and several other gun stores around the country, alleging they created a public nuisance with illegal sales of firearms that ended up on the streets of New York. That case was later resolved in Wallace's favor. But he said he spent $1 million in legal fees defending himself.

Jay Wallace told the MDJ Monday he worries about the ATF's power to revoke his license and shutter his store.

"I'm fearful that there's a government that doesn't care anymore about doing the right thing. I'm fearful that it's a government that has an agenda over doing the right thing," he said.