FFLGuard Proud to Be Featured as #1 on Shooting Sports Retailer Magazine’s “Tools of the Trade” List
OutdoorHub 07.13.12
FFLGuard is an innovative program offered by a collection of lawyers, subject matter experts, and professionals who provide participating Federal Firearms Licensees across the country with cost-efficient access to legal compliance specialists — delivering educational training and rapid response services — with a focus on safeguarding the viability of the client’s FFL through proactive firearms compliance. Those clients participating in the FFLGuard program are a collective of FFL’s that subscribe to heightened compliance standards and best practices, and who also agree to cooperatively pool their financial and intelligence resources for FFLGuard personnel to serve as the “on-call compliance team” and general counsel for all clients.
Shooting Sports Retailer (“SSR”) is a premier firearms industry publication that caters to independent retailers of shooting sports, tactical, and related equipment. As part of its ongoing effort to keep the firearms industry current and informed, SSR’s July/August2012 edition provides its readers with a comprehensive list of products/services certain to differentiate the retailer from its competition. In SSR’s “Tools of the Trade – 6 Ideas to Make Your Business Sparkle” article, the magazine boasts FFLGuard as #1 on its list.
Christopher Chiafullo, National Coordinating Counsel for the FFLGuard program, states that “… it’s always gratifying when the firearms industry recognizes our hard work. We started down the road of heightened compliance vigilance 5 years ago, and the traction we’ve gained as of late is incredible. Participation in FFLGuard works.”
FFLGuard‘s Director of Client Compliance, Jim Zammillo, who served with ATF for 43 years, most recently as its first Deputy Assistant Director of Field Operations (Industry Operations), echoed Chiafullo’s sentiment. Zammillo offered that “…while individual licensees may of had their own compliance initiatives, it was clear that the firearms industry formerly lacked the sort of cooperative private sector compliance expertise and specialization that FFLGuard provides. I’m proud to be a part of something that isn’t governed by political agendas or special interests. FFLGuard promotes voluntary compliance through better internal controls and strives for the regulatory fairness and consistency that I tried to institute at ATF before my retirement from the bureau in 2010.”
SSR highlights FFLGuard’s innovative “hub-and-spoke” framework to delivering legal compliance services to its clients, along with the program’s foresight to organize retailers into an organized collective when others weren’t. “Everyone told me I was setting the bar too high when we started, underestimating the capabilities of the firearms retailer,” Chiafullo noted. “I guess everyone was wrong.”
