What’s the difference between Roy Alloway and Fast & Furious?

Retired Bremerton Police Detective Roy Alloway illegally sold hundreds of firearms – possibly putting many guns into the wrong hands – and he’s going to spend two years in a federal prison.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-s ... st-furious

At what point do you attract attention from the ATF? Did he attract them because he was buying (which is what the article implies), or because he was selling them, which would make the most sense?

I've been accumulating firearms since my teens, but I've sold very few, mostly just the ones I didn't particularly care for, or never actually shot. It would seem like the sales would be when they might take notice, not the purchasing of them.

I'm not familiar with the particulars of this case, so maybe I'm missing something? I'm by no means condoning his sales of hundreds of firearms without a license, I'm just curious about where the line is, and what defines that line. The buying of, or the selling of, a "large" number of firearms? How many is "a large number"?

The line is crossed when you are selling firearms as an income generator. Acting as a business buying and selling guns is what is illegal. Rotating some of your collection isn't. Alloway was acting as a business when he was flipping guns.

Roy was in partnership with another cop. Roy sold his interest to his partner when he got the first warning. He continued to buy guns as his name was still on the FFL until time to renew. He bought at dealer price and resold as a private citizen. Bad JUJU.

Why bother asking what the difference is. It's simple. A government agency can do what they want and if caught, keep enough smoke in the air that the administration changes hands and their problems go away.