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Sheriff suggests residents tell ATF agents conducting warrantless, surprise gun inspections to leave

A Washington State sheriff Friday advised residents in his county that if agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) come to their homes without a search warrant asking to inspect their firearms, they can tell them to leave their property.

Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer, in a press statement, said that agents are “making surprise home visits of persons who have purchased two or more firearms at one time. To my knowledge, these ATF visits have not occurred in Washington State yet.”

Mr. Songer says that if residents are contacted by an ATF agent or any other federal agent, lacking a search warrant to inspect firearms they have purchased, residents do not have to cooperate with the authorities and should contact his office if the agents refuse to leave their property.