No license for Tacoma (WA) gun shop linked to DC snipers

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009959014_websniper28m.html

No license for Tacoma gun shop linked to DC snipers

By The Associated Press

A Tacoma gun shop linked to the D.C. sniper case isn't getting its firearms license back.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ruled Friday the government properly revoked the license of Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, where John Allen Muhammad and teen accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo obtained weapons.

Malvo and Muhammad lived in the Tacoma area before beginning a string of random sniper shootings that left 10 people dead and three wounded in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. in October 2002.

A Bushmaster rifle used in the attacks was among hundreds of weapons that went missing from the Bull's Eye, which was repeatedly warned about sloppy record keeping. In another instance, the pair had a Tacoma man buy for them a .308 Remington rifle from Bull's Eye....

Good. That was one of the sloppiest jobs (deliberate or negligent) of recordkeeping by a FFL dealer I have ever heard of.

[Hoopla Phil]

1. I know of a local gun shop that had some handguns "go missing"

The owner got with the police department real quick. The police department was very helpful. It was quickly determined that a new employee was taking them. 20 years old and got sentenced to 20 years IIRC.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. Good on that shop owner. A nice contrast with the scum in the OP

Licensed dealers should be hit harder than the non-licensed public when it comes to deliberate violation of BATF regs,
they are supposed to know better.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Colosimo's in Philly is also shutting down

They were the source for a large number of guns that got into the hands of criminals. The owner (Colosimo) said he did a large business and may have made a mistake or two. Activists have been trying to shut them down for years, and the PA legislature has crafted a number of "pro-gun" bills with Colosimo's in mind. For example, our (PA) localities are no longer permitted more than token control over firearms laws. A lot of this was done to (and I paraphrase) "stick it to the gun-grabbing libbrul Democrat cities" -- like Philadelphia.

It's getting tough to have much sympathy for gun enthusiasts with these kinds of "mistakes" (and conservative resentment-driven laws) being made. Part of upholding the amendment ought to be making sure its practitioners aren't enabling mass crime. I favor a broad interpretation of #2, but funneling whole arsenal's-worths of weapons to criminals stretches it pretty thin.

This somehow makes me a "gun grabber" (and add the other political gun clichés in use).

There is a similar pale that the 1st amendment faces -- it's illegal to call for violence, especially against the USA. But we see that happening more and more frequently by the radical right. They seem hell-bent on destroying the Bill of Rights by rushing into criminality and then claiming the protection of the Constitution. They seem willing to nyah-nyah this country into martial law. And these are "patriots"?

--d!

[virginia mountainman]

6. One thing about you post...

For example, our (PA) localities are no longer permitted more than token control over firearms laws.

Thats a very good thing, otherwise you would have a patchwork of gun laws over the whole state, that would do nothing but confuse, and get GOOD people arrested. People who's only crime was to cross some invisible city limit, with the wrong kind of gun with them.

Things would be "Legal" HERE, "Sorta Legal" a mile to the west, and totally Illegal 5 miles to the east.. Depending solely on who's jurisdiction your in.

That sort of thing, plays hell on people just driving across the state to go hunting or shooting.

It is good that the state has its laws set the way it is, that way, their will be no confusion, as to what is legal, or not.

[friendly_iconoclast]

7. I think you are conflating Colosimo's problems with the PA constitution...

..and their pre-emption laws (i.e., the various municipalities can't override PA state gun regs)

Philly tried to violate PA state law and the PA state Constitution and (properly, IMO) got stopped from doing so.

[Euromutt]

4. To correct your headline, it's the former co-owner of Bull's Eye who's not getting his FFL back

Bull's Eye is still there, but it's been under new management since 2003. Not that I'd miss it; there are two gun shops I much prefer that don't involve having to deal with I-5.

But yeah, stripping the guy's FFL was completely justified. Losing track of 239 guns? And even if Malvo is telling the truth that he shoplifted that Bushmaster, that's not exactly an improvement. Plus Borgert, the former co-owner got three years' probation for failing to file federal taxes, so he seems to have a chronic problem with paperwork, though whether it's because he's a crook or because he's incompetent, I can't say. Either way I wouldn't want him to have an FFL.

[Treo]

5. How in the hell do you "shoplift" an AR ? NT

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Hahaha oh man... When I worked at Incredible Universe

I saw someone just about get away with shoplifting a 32" TV. Mind you, this was back in the days of TUBE TV's. She put it between her knees, dropped her mu-mu like dress over it, and waddled away toward the exit. We couldn't fucking believe it.


But to answer your question, they don't. A corrupt employee or owner will pass it out the back, or do a sloppy or no job at all of a straw purchase, or whatever. Maybe the owner. Never know.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Ben's Loan.

They got everything you need. Or they can get it.

Fuck Bull's Eye. That was wierd though, I drove past it a while back and did a double-take. I saw it was open, and wondered if I was confused and maybe it was Butches' Gun Shop that 'lost' the DC Sniper weapon, and tons of other guns.

[Euromutt]

11. I'm a fan of Federal Way Discount Guns myself

They're kind of curt in there, but that's because they're usually pretty busy, and they're usually pretty busy because they're very good.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Never heard of it.

Just recently discovered West Coast Armory in Issaquah. It's ok, but it's a little bit of a ripoff like Survival Arms in Bellevue.

[friendly_iconoclast]

8. You do realize that, for some, this OP and the replies to it do not exist

"Gun nuts supporting enforcement of gun laws. That's unpossible, they don't do that!"