FFL's are very touchy when dealing with the law due to the nature of their buisness. So while I don't agree with your FFL, I can understand why he did what he did. This is compounded by FFL's being V_E_R_Y sensative regarding gun buyers traveling who arrive as a man/woman couple. Reason for this is spouses/girlfriends are often used as straw purchasers by men who are forbidden from buying a firearm. The ATF knows that a woman buying an AK47 appears odd in the eyes of the public, so they use women as agents on the premise that any FFL selling such a gun to a woman should assume that she is a straw purchaser.
The setup goes like this.
The ATF agents have a man and a woman go into a gun shop, both wired. The man and woman look at a gun (Usually a handgun, or a politically incorrect rifle) and they decide to make the purchase. The woman goes to a corner of the store where no one can hear her, and says out loud "I am buying this (name of gun) for my husband, because he can't legally buy one" or something to that effect.
She fills out the paperwork, takes possesion of the gun, they bust the FFL for "knowingly transfering a firearm to a straw purchaser."
The dealer will of course claim that he had no knowledge that she was buying for her husband.... but they will have the recordings of the transaction. All the jury hears is the woman saying she was buying the gun for her husband because he couldn't. They don't take into account whether the FFL really heard her say it or not.
Of course, this practice is illegal. But the ATF does it all the time, and the money it costs to fight them in court is usually beyond even the wealthiest of gun dealers.
The ATF is on an active campaign here in Florida to erradicate FFL's from existence. Southside Gun in Jacksonville FL, along with several other North Florida FFL dealers were recently targeted, and many shut down or cited over seemingly minor infractions. In the case of Southside Gun, it was the set up I mentioned above.
An FFL is in a buisness where he has no friends.
The government who is supposet to protect him is trying to get him, and the public at large views him as a moraly corroded person for selling guns.
You will find more often then not that FFL's will walk on eggshells, not to offend their customers, but because they have to in order to survive.