What exactly were they supposed to tell gun shop owners when they fired off emails noting their “concern”? Besides perhaps “If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t do it.”? They couldn’t tell them it was illegal, because it was perfectly legal. They couldn’t tell them that the men doing the buy were criminals, because they weren’t. And if they kept refusing to sell, eventually one of two things was going to happen: Either the cartels would notice the red flags and deduce that ATF was watching the shops or they might actually try to accuse the shop owners of being discriminatory for refusing to sell to certain clientele.