PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania firearms dealer is suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Attorney General William Barr over allegations they have unlawfully failed to make a timely decision on his license restoration application.
Vahan Kelerchian filed a complaint Jan. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the ATF, ATF's Acting Director Regina Lombardo and Barr alleging violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
According to the complaint, Kelerchian is a licensed firearm dealer. He claims the ATF is unlawfully refusing to acknowledge or make a decision on his application for restoration of firearms privileges beyond the required 60-day time frame after he faced charges relating to "putative transfer of machine guns and laser-aiming devices" in Indiana in 2013.
"ATF has informed the undersigned counsel for plaintiff that regardless of the fact that he has made and filed an application for relief of disabilities, based on an internal policy, it intends to revoke his license and contend that the firearms held pursuant to the license are contraband and subject to forfeiture, in the absence of a determination on his application for relief, if the U.S. Supreme Court denies his petition for certiorari," the suit states.
The plaintiff seeks the court to declare the defendants are prohibited from enforcing the internal policy.
Kelerchian seeks monetary, injunctive and all other just relief. He is represented by Joshua Prince and Adam Kraut of Prince Law Offices PC in Bechtelsville.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number 2:20-CV-00253-WB