I pasted the important part of the article into my original post, but to add a couple of items:
It was Ashley's father that had the FFL, I don't remember why he lost it but believe it had to do with the ATF coming down on non brick and mortar dealers. Every few years they take actions to purge the "Kitchen Table" dealers that primarily sell at gun shows and from their homes.
Depending upon size of inventory when an FFL loses their license like this they will transfer a lot of it into their "personal" collection. They can then sell off items piece by piece for a long period of time (just not making it a business). It appears that this is what Ashley was doing when he made a sale to someone that had found him via the internet. The person was curious as to why there was no ID or any backgound check required when he made his purchase Having noticed a large pile of firearms new in their boxes around, many with price tags, he felt compelled to contact the ATF. The ATF then did a sting operation and Ashley sold (over time multiple) a firearm to someone that "told him he was a convicted felon."
Ashley made mistakes in how he disposed of the firearms they had after loosing their FFL, he is paying a large price for those mistakes. I also had purchased a firearm from the Gerbig's back in the day and found them to be honest businessmen. But with all the rules we all must jump through, and there being even more for someone selling lots of firearms....Well lets just all take this to be a reminder to be careful in what we do, because things that do not seem like a lot can come back to get us later.
