6/12/24  Gun shows are often held on California State fairgrounds. But while dealers will be free to continue displaying their wares, a 3-0 decision by a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed State law that prohibits gun sales from taking place on State property. That severely disappointed Crossroads of the West, which stages the shows, and the California Rifle & Pistol Association, which promotes gun ownership. But California’s A.G. said that prohibited persons have acquired guns at these shows, and the decision will help keep such things from taking place.

5/21/24  Acting on a lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General, a Texas-based Federal judge enjoined ATF from enforcing, within Texas, a recently-enacted Federal rule that expands who must be Federally licensed to deal in guns. According to the rule, it includes persons who transact in guns, including stolen guns, on an irregular or part-time basis, use “any medium of exchange”, including drugs, and conduct their activities at any venue, including gun shows and the Internet. ATF rule (89 FR 28968)

1/23/24  In October 2021 California Senate Bill 264 outlawed gun sales at the Orange County fairgrounds, which regularly hosted gun shows frequented by the public and enthusiasts. Among other things, critics alleged that parts sales at the show facilitated the assembly of illicit, unserialized “ghost guns”. Last October, though, complaints that the ban intruded on Constitutional protections led a Federal judge to enjoin its enforcement. And the Crossroads of the West gun show, which had staged regular events at the site for a decade, enjoyed its first full run in two years last weekend. SB 264 text

9/1/23  Licensed gun dealers must conduct pre-sale background checks to keep felons, underage persons and other unqualified individuals from buying guns.  To help “keep guns out of dangerous hands” the Justice Department is proposing a Federal rule that would broaden the definition of just who is a “dealer in firearms” to include everyone who sells guns to make money, restocks and sells more. It would also do away with the “gun show loophole” that lets unlicensed persons pretend they are hobbyists.

7/3/21  Gun control activists are pressing President Biden to act against unlicensed persons who make unregulated gun sales online and at gun shows, without complying with any laws or requiring background checks. In 2018 Thomas Caldwell, an unlicensed Wisconsin man who had been repeatedly warned by ATF about selling guns over Armslist, was sentenced to prison after a felon used one of his guns, a Glock 9mm. pistol, to kill Chicago police commander Paul Bauer.

10/25/19  Undercover California state agents regularly watch California residents acquire California-illegal assault rifles at gun shows in Arizona and Nevada. Buyers are tailed when they return to California, where they are stopped and the loot is seized. “The...problem is that California has a 608-mile border with Nevada...and Nevada’s gun regulations are less stringent,” a prosecutor said.

2/5/25  Highly lethal weapons produced by U.S. manufacturers have long been smuggled into Mexico, where Cartels use them to fuel an epidemic of violence. Mexico, which has only one licensed gun dealer, tightly regulates gun sales, but American guns have created an overwhelming problem. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is now linking her cooperation with the U.S. on other matters, including migration, to its willingness to control illegal gun exports. She has also turned to litigation; Mexico’s current lawsuit against U.S. gun makers is before the Supreme Court.

11/14/24  Caribbean nations are beset by gangs. And some of the worst murder rates in the world, as well. The primary instruments of death are semi-automatic pistols smuggled from the U.S., mostly from Florida, Georgia and Texas. Disassembled and hidden in shipping containers, they’ve been found in everything from cars to washing machines. 3-D printers are also used to assemble rifles, and conversion devices that turn them into machineguns are commonplace.

9/12/24  According to the New York Times, Illinois man John Elik is “Ivan the Troll,” the world-famous personna whose 3-D printed FGC-9 shoulder-fired assault pistol has become de rigueur for “terrorists, drug dealers and freedom fighters in at least 15 countries.” Under the umbrage of “Deterrence Dispensed,” “Ivan” and his lethal toy have been featured in a plethora of videos and podcasts. But Mr. Elik is a licensed gun manufacturer, so his activities in the U.S. seem perfectly legal.

7/29/24  Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a top figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, son of imprisoned cartel leader “El Chapo”, flew by private jet into El Paso. And that’s where the Feds pounced, arresting the two in connection with a slew of indictments charging them and numerous other members of their organization, many already in custody, with importing large amounts of narcotics, and particularly fentanyl, into the U.S. Zambada, 76, has already pled innocent. His lawyer claims that cartel members brutally forced his client to take the flight. DOJ news release  (See 3/27/24 update)

6/25/24  Thirty-five years. That’s the sentence given to Joly Germine, 31, a Haitian gang leader who used proceeds from ransoms paid for liberating American hostages to acquire two dozen military-style rifles in the U.S. and smuggle them to Haiti. Germine’s reputed “wife”, Eliande Tunis, a resident of Florida, got twelve years for her role in the plot. Two other accused, Jocelyn Dor, 31, and Walder St. Louis, 35, who bought the guns at Florida gun shops on the couple’s behalf, also received prison terms. Germine ran the plot by cell phone while incarcerated in a Haitian prison.

6/7/24  After a years-long investigation forty-seven members of the Sinaloa cartel face Federal charges for trafficking huge quantities of meth and fentanyl from Mexico into California’s Imperial Valley in exchange for cash and guns, including assault rifles and ghost guns. A sweep by hundreds of Federal, state and local officers led to the arrest of thirty-six of the accused and the execution of twenty-five search warrants in California, Arizona and Oregon.(See 7/29/24 update)

3/27/24  Five Texas residents face Federal charges for illegally acquiring and smuggling more than 100 “high-powered” rifles to Mexico and selling them to a drug cartel. Their weapons, which included “FNH SCAR rifles, Barrett .50 caliber rifles, FNH M294S rifles, and M1919 rifles”, had been purchased by straw buyers from both licensed and unlicensed dealers in the U.S.

11/20/23  Undercover purchases of cocaine and AR-15 style machineguns made using unserialized “ghost” parts led to the conviction of two Texas men who had made a profitable business supplying large quantities of fully automatic firearms to the Mexican cartels. Jaime Jesus Esquivel, 37, of Laredo got ten years, and Jose Abraham Nicanor, 34, of Houston, got five years. Two straw buyers who helped them acquire the guns they converted and illegally exported have already been sentenced.

1/29/22  A California man, Marco Antonio Santillan Valencia, 51, his 29-year old son Marco Jr. and several confederates face Federal gun smuggling charges after they were caught on their way to Mexico with 64,400 rounds of ammunition, ammunition belts, rifle scopes, and over $50,000 in cash. Large quantities of guns and ammunition were also seized at various locations. According to the indictment, the intended recipient was the “Jalisco New Generation Cartel” led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho.” DEA has reportedly offered a “$10-million bounty” for his capture.

8/5/21  Mexico’s government has sued Smith & Wesson, Colt and other gun manufacturers, and a wholesaler who distributes their guns to dealers throughout the U.S., in Boston Federal court. Their negligent marketing practices allegedly let “straw” buyers with clean criminal records buy guns at retail on behalf of gun traffickers. They in turn smuggle the weapons into Mexico, contributing to the narco-related violence that besets its citizens. For an example of the prosecution of such a case from the blogger’s ATF career, click here.

7/3/21  Gun control activists are pressing President Biden to act against unlicensed persons who make unregulated gun sales online and at gun shows, without complying with any laws or requiring background checks. In 2018 Thomas Caldwell, an unlicensed Wisconsin man who had been repeatedly warned by ATF about selling guns over Armslist, was sentenced to prison after a felon used one of his guns, a Glock 9mm. pistol, to kill Chicago police commander Paul Bauer.

6/24/21  As a key part of his anti-violence strategy, President Biden announced a crackdown on lawbreaking by licensed firearms dealers. “If you willfully sell a gun to someone who’s prohibited, my message to you is this: We’ll find you and we’ll seek your license to sell guns. We’ll make sure you can’t sell death and mayhem on our streets.”

6/23/21  DOJ announced that US Attorneys and ATF are forming “strike forces” to combat illicit gun trafficking ”corridors” that supply five areas highly impacted by gun violence: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. Click here for our gun sources article

6/19/21  Missouri is the latest of nine States to enact laws this year that “discourage or prohibit” local police from cooperating in the enforcement of Federal gun laws. These restrictions are intended to soften the blow should new Federal laws pass that expand background checks or restrict the kinds of guns one can possess. Whether these pre-emptive rules will hamper the Feds’ ability to trace guns seized by police so as to identify illegal purchases and discover illicit resale channels is as yet unknown.

11/20/20  Mexico is being flooded with .50 caliber sniper rifles and assault weapons trafficked from the U.S.,  where straw buyers acquire them from private persons and at retail. Mexican officials are pleading with the U.S. to strengthen its gun laws and demand background checks for all gun transfers, including private party sales at gun shows, but America’s political climate makes that unlikely. According to an ATF agent, “we have to charge [traffickers] with what is basically a paperwork violation. We don’t really have a big charge to hang over them.”

10/6/19  A Los Angeles Times investigation blames largescale gun smuggling from the U.S. for “stoking a homicide epidemic in Mexico.” According to ATF, seventy percent of the 132,823 guns recovered in Mexico between 2009 and 2018 came from the U.S., mainly border states in the southwest. Most smuggled guns - one estimate says more than 750,000 firearms went South in just two years - are reportedly acquired from U.S. gun dealers and at gun shows by straw buyers.

7/30/22  With two “Reds” in favor, and five “Blues” opposed, the House narrowly passed an assault weapons ban (217-213). It is slightly stiffer than the lapsed measure, as it bans rifles with detachable magazines that have only one special feature (a pistol grip, forward grip, folding stock, grenade launcher, barrel shroud or threaded barrel) instead of two. Semi-auto rifles with fixed magazines that can accept more than 15 rounds are also banned. It is expected to fail in the Senate. Bill text

3/11/18  In the New York Times and Washington Post, illustrated features about the grievous damage inflicted on the human body by ultra high-velocity projectiles such as those fired by AR-15 style rifles.

3/20/25  Police have long sold seized guns and used duty weapons to dealers and auction houses. Last year an in-depth inquiry by investigative journalists revealed that ninety percent of agencies (n=145) contacted by reporters confirmed doing so. And there have been consequences. According to trace data, “more than 52,000” guns recovered in crimes between 2006-2022 were resold police guns. Cautions about resales by news media and ATF have have some effect. According to a new report by The Trace, “more than a dozen” major agencies have discontinued the practice. ATF gun trace report

3/18/25  Four years ago Chicago sued Indiana gun store “Westforth Sports” for selling large quantities of guns to straw buyers, who they knew would resell them to persons on the street. “Hundreds” of these guns turned up in Chicago shootings, and “more than forty” of the straw buyers were Federally prosecuted for unlicensed gun dealing. In 2023 Westforth closed shop, and a judge dismissed the Illinois lawsuit on grounds that everything involved Indiana. But a panel of Illinois appellate judges just ruled that Westforth knew where many of the guns would wind up and reinstated the lawsuit.

1/28/25  Complaints by gun stores that they were being shut down “for minor infractions” have led to a softening of the so-called “zero-tolerance” policy that ATF instituted in 2021 under the Biden administration. That policy, which reportedly caused gun dealer licenses revocations to surge, has been toned down to limit what violations can be considered “willful”, thus sufficient for revocation. Neither repeated rules violations nor clerical errors will, by themselves, be enough.

1/9/25  Just issued, ATF’s fourth and final volume of its national gun trafficking assessment urges increased attention to unlicensed gun sellers. Emphasizing “the serious public safety consequences of firearm transfers made without background checks,” it also recommends (among many other things,)  expanding the reach of state gun purchase background checks; implicitly, by requiring them for gun transfers between private parties. ATF report

10/24/24  At President Biden’s urging, in June 2021 ATF embarked on a campaign to revoke the licenses of gun dealers who flout the law. Five revocations took place that year, followed by 88 in 2022, 157 in 2023, and 81 thru June 2024. Revocations require proof that a dealer willfully broke the rules by, among other things, knowingly selling guns to a prohibited buyer, falsifying records, and failing to do a background check. According to The Smoking Gun, the problem goes beyond sales. Gun stores are notoriously “soft targets,” and numerous guns used in crimes are stolen each year from dealer premises. (See 6/24/21 update)

9/4/24  In 2021 Maryland man Demetrius Minor bought 34 handguns from three Montgomery County gun retailers during a 6-month period. Many wound up in the hands of a relative with a violent criminal history, including a plea to accessory to murder. Nine were seized at crime scenes and from criminals. In 2023 Minor was convicted of dealing in guns without a license; he drew 18 months. D.C. and Maryland’s A.G.’s have now sued the dealers, whom they allege should have known better than to sell Minor the guns. But they “made a choice: a choice to put their profits over our public safety.”

9/2/24  An in-depth analysis of ATF data about gun sources reveals a “surge” in interstate gun trafficking. Gun traffickers get “straw buyers” who reside in States with permissive gun laws to buy firearms, often in quantity. These guns are then smuggled into States with more restrictive gun laws and resold on the street. ATF data shows that 63% of guns traced in 2015 by police in Massachusetts, a strong-law State, came from another State. Five years later, that proportion increased to 79%.

7/31/24  According to the FBI, Trump’s intended assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, registered for the rally a week in advance. That’s when he did an online search for “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?”.  Crooks borrowed the rifle from his father a few hours before the assassination attempt, ostensibly to take it to a gun club he frequented. Crooks bought ammunition on his way to the site. On arrival he flew a drone he had brought along, live streaming to his controller.

7/23/24  It only took ATF a half-hour to identify the individual who bought the AR-style rifle that Thomas Matthew Crooks used in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. (It turned out to be Crooks’ father). That’s because ATF digitizes the gun sale forms of out-of-business retailers, and it was one such store to which manufacturer and distributor records led. But proposed legislation introduced by the “Reds” would either destroy out of business records or prohibit their digitization.

7/1/24  California has joined Colorado and New York in requiring that credit-card companies provide banks with unique codes that identify purchases at gun stores. This will enable banks to discern when customers exhibit unusual patterns, such as making large purchases at multiple gun stores during a brief period. They could then alert police, and perhaps prevent a mass shooting. But Georgia, Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming and thirteen other “Red” states have passed laws to prohibit the practice.

5/28/24  On March 19 Brian Malinowski opened fire on ATF agents who were executing a search warrant at his Little Rock (AR) home. His wife later said that he thought they were burglars. One agent was struck, and Malinowski was shot dead. According to ATF, Malinowski, the head of the local airport, had been buying copious amounts of guns, then reselling them at gun shows. Some later turned up in crimes. Malinowski didn’t have a Federal dealer’s license and didn’t run background checks. He also assertedly frequented “dangerous” neighborhoods. But critics complain that the law defining “dealer” is vague, and that Malinowski was simply a hobbyist. About four dozen guns were found in his home. (See 3/25/24 update)

5/20/24  A commercial website, ffl123.com, helps private persons set up licensed gun businesses at home. And even, if they wish, to become licensed gun manufacturers. According to ATF, there were more than eighteen-thousand such licensees in 2022. Licensed gun dealers and gun manufacturers have phenomenal privileges. Personnel constraints leave them largely unsupervised. According to ffl123.com, ATF inspectors will visit once every twenty years. In FY 2021 ATF inspected five percent (6,643) of its 134,516 licensees (dealers, makers and importers.) “Less than one percent” had their licenses revoked.

5/13/24  Stolen guns are often used to commit violent crimes. So where do they come from? A recent study reveals that more than half of guns stolen in 2022 came from cars. That’s a steep increase from a decade earlier, when vehicle thefts were the source for one in four stolen guns. Most vehicles are parked at residences when thieves strike. Memphis endured the highest rate of these thefts in 2022, when three-thousand guns were stolen from cars.

4/12/24  According to the Attorney General, ATF’s “final rule”, which implements the language of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, clarifies that no matter where guns are sold, “on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store,” if the motive is to profit, a Federal firearms dealer license is required, and a background check must be conducted. Final rule

4/1/24 Two and one-half years have passed since Ethan Crumbley’s parents were jailed for making a newly-bought pistol easily accessible to their deeply troubled 17-year old son. Ethan Crumbley promptly used the gun to murder four students and wound seven. He was convicted and got life without parole. Jennifer and James Crumbley were tried and convicted of manslaughter earlier this year. Both were just sentenced to fifteen years and will have to serve at least ten, with credit for time served.

4/5/24  An ATF study of 230,000 trafficked guns recovered between 2017-2021 points to unlicensed persons illegally dealing in guns as the most frequent source, at 41 percent of recoveries. These transactions circumvent background checks; 60 percent of the guns wound up with felons, and 16 percent were used in shootings. Many of these guns had been purchased at retail stores by straw buyers who acquired them on behalf of an illegal dealer or unqualified end user. Homemade guns are being increasingly recovered, and illegal gun dealing through the Internet has become commonplace.

3/25/24  An ATF affidavit accused the chief of Arkansas’s Little Rock airport of illegally reselling “more than 150” guns he bought from licensed firearms dealers between 2021-2024. Many reportedly wound up in the hands of criminals and were used in crimes. But when agents tried to serve a search warrant at his home, Bryan Malinowski, 53, opened fire. An agent was wounded, and Malinowski was shot dead. (See 5/28/24 update)

3/18/24  In February Minneapolis-area resident Shannon Gooden, 38, shot and killed two suburban Minneapolis police officers and a paramedic during a domestic violence call. Gooden, who had been convicted of assault with a knife, was barred from having guns. But his live-in companion, Ashley  Dyrdahl, who allegedly knew of his record, bought him several, including three AR-15 style rifles. She has now been Federally indicted for doing so.

3/15/24  James Crumbley was found guilty by a Michigan jury. Both he and his wife Jennifer now stand convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter for making a gun accessible to their deeply troubled 17-year old son. In November 2021, Ethan Crumbley used the pistol his father bought him four days earlier to kill four students at Michigan’s Oxford High School. He pled guilty and got life without parole. His mother was convicted in February. She and her husband could draw up to 15 years on each count.

3/14/24  Two Kansas City men face multiple Federal charges, including unlicensed gun dealing, in connection with the February’s Super Bowl shootout. Fedo Manning and Ronnel Williams Jr. are accused of buying and illegally reselling numerous guns, including the AR-15 style assault rifles recovered at the scene. Both are also accused of buying gun parts for the purpose of assembling them into unserialized weapons. Their customers included Chaelyn Groves, 19, who was too young to legally buy the pistol that Williams supplied.

3/1/24  For the last thirty years, Federal law has required that private persons who buy guns from licensed dealers pass a criminal record check. These are now quickly accomplished through the FBI’s “Insta-Check” system. But according to The Trace, “nearly a quarter of gun sales” happen wholly between private parties. So there’s no Federal records check. Twenty states have laws that require checks for such transactions, but the others do not. And it turns out that many guns that are used in crimes wound up in the wrong hands thanks to this loophole.

2/28/24  A newly-published study analyzed the sales history of 38,441 handguns and 6,806 long guns recovered in California crimes between 2010-2021. Recoveries were positively associated with several factors, including dealer sales volume, percent of sales that were denied, less expensive handguns, larger-caliber handguns, and buyers with previous arrests or living in more “socially vulnerable” census tracts. Study

2/19/24  To help identify problematic gun dealers, ATF has long kept a list of those which sold twenty-five or more guns in a single year that wound up being seized by police within three years of their sale. And to help identify unlicensed gun marketers, stores that wind up on the list must submit quarterly information about their sale of used guns. USA Today got access to the lists. More than half of Turner’s Outdoorsman stores are on them.

1/8/24  In October 2022 the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act enhanced the process of conducting Federal gun purchase checks for prospective buyers under 21. Among other things, it extended the time frame for reviewing offense, drug use and mental health histories to allow review of local agency and juvenile records. According to DOJ, the additional outreach resulted in the prohibition of 527 firearms sales to young persons that would have otherwise gone through.

12/11/23  What’s a “gun”? It’s the “frame” or “receiver”, the serial number-bearing structure that’s the base for a gun’s internal components. That definition underlies the success of firms such as Gunbusters. They buy surplus firearms from police and government agencies, shred the frames, then sell the internal parts as no-license-required “kits”. Paired with readily-available “unfinished” frames in kit form, the end result are unserialized, untraceable “ghost guns” that appeal to criminals and juveniles.

12/8/23  In the Los Angeles Times, a major inquiry into crime gun sources. Its attention is particularly on “straw buyers” who purchase guns, often in quantity, for resale to others. Their clients may not wish to be identified as a gun buyer. Many are unqualified because of their age or criminal record. Straw purchase turns out to be how a great many of the guns used in violent crimes hit the street. PoliceIssues essays on point: Sources of Crime Guns in Los Angeles, California   Where Do They Come From?

11/8/23  A Texas man who bought guns from licensed dealers, then resold them for a profit, faces Federal charges after at least sixteen of these guns were used to commit murders and other violent crimes in Texas, Maryland and Canada. Demontre Antwon Hackworth, 31, was indicted on multiple counts of unlicensed gun dealing and making false statements. A licensed dealer who sold him seventy-five guns in six months has also surrendered their license. According to DOJ, this case is an example of a crackdown “on the criminal gun-trafficking pipelines that flood our communities with illegal guns”.

9/1/23  Licensed gun dealers must conduct pre-sale background checks to keep felons, underage persons and other unqualified individuals from buying guns.  To help “keep guns out of dangerous hands” the Justice Department is proposing a Federal rule that would broaden the definition of just who is a “dealer in firearms” to include everyone who sells guns to make money, restocks and sells more. It would also do away with the “gun show loophole” that lets unlicensed persons pretend they are hobbyists.

8/10/23  Federal agents arrested a 30-year old Michigan man in March after he posted death threats against the Governor and other politicians. He also promised to kill anyone who might try to take his guns. Indeed, four firearms were found in his possession. Problem is, Randall Berka II had a prior mental commitment, making gun possession unlawful. It turns out that the guns were bought by his mother, Michelle Berka, 56. She now faces felony charges for acquiring them on his behalf.

7/3/23  An early-morning block party in Baltimore’s beset Brooklyn Homes area (poverty 25.1 pct.) devolved into a mass shooting, killing an 18-year old woman and a 20-year old man and wounding 28 others, several critically. No information about suspects or motives has as yet been announced. Days ago, a news release from the local U.S. Attorney’s office touted the results of a year-long joint Federal-state-local campaign to combat illegal guns and arrest the repeat violent offenders who misuse them. Soon after the shooting, Mayor Brandon Scott promised to redouble such efforts.

6/21/23  Three top members of the notorious “Goonies” street gang are on Federal trial for terrorizing the residents of Chicago’s poverty-stricken, violence-ridden Englewood district through a wave of violence that took ten lives during 2014-2016.  Romeo Blackman, Terrance “T” Smith and Jolicious “Jo Jo” Turman are charged with racketeering and murder, and if convicted face life without parole. A subset of the Gangster Disciples, “Goonies” acted as “urban hunters” and acquired large numbers of guns through straw purchases in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

6/15/23  Just released by DOJ, a “fact sheet” boasts about its vigorous implementation of last year’s “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (BSCA). Among other things, it reports greatly augmented efforts to combat gun trafficking, the scourge of “ghost guns”, and illegal gun dealing. FBI gun purchase background checks now include juvenile mental health records and criminal convictions. Agents and lawyers are getting special training on the expanded definitions of straw purchase and illegal gun dealing, and prosecution of these crimes has substantially increased.

5/11/23  After catching four students bringing in guns this year, the Grand Rapids schools banned backpacks. It’s the second district to do so in Michigan. Flint recently restricted students to small purses and transparent bags. These moves come one and one-half years after the massacre at Detroit-area Oxford high school, where a 15-year old student used his parents’ handgun to murder four classmates.

4/6/23  A study of the relationship between licensed gun dealers and murder in Franklin County, Ohio during 2016-2018 revealed that residential proximity to a gun dealer, and particularly a dealer deemed to be “negligent”, significantly increased one’s chances of victimization, and that the link was particularly strong in poor neighborhoods.

2/4/23  According to a new ATF study, an increasing number of guns recovered from crimes were sold by licensed dealers as part of a “multiple sale.” That’s when buyers, often unlicensed resellers, acquire guns in quantity for resale to persons, such as felons and the underage, who cannot legally buy guns. Semi-auto pistols fashioned after the popular “Glock” have also become the gun of choice, comprising nearly seven out of every ten recovered guns. ATF study

12/17/22  Two-and-one-half years in Federal prison. That’s the sentence handed down to Jamel Danzy, who straw-purchased (bought for someone else) the pistol that two brothers, Eric and Emonte Morgan, used to shoot and kill Chicago police officer Ella French last year. Danzy admitted to an ATF agent that he bought the gun for Eric Morgan, who as a felon couldn’t do it himself. U.S. District Judge Gettleman gave Danzy, a “college-educated” man who expressed great remorse, half the maximum term.

10/17/22  As part of a $370 million- plus set of Federal anti-violence grants, DOJ is disbursing $9 million to help local agencies participate in initiatives with ATF that apply “intelligence, technology and community engagement” to identify the sources of guns used in crimes. Additional grants are being awarded to help post-secondary schools provide instruction in collecting gun-related intelligence.

7/28/22  Indiana resident Jamel Danzy pled guilty in Federal court to straw purchase. He admitted buying a .22 Glock pistol at a Hammond dealer on behalf of Chicago man Eric Morgan, who as a felon couldn’t buy a gun. Morgan and his brother have been charged with murdering Chicago police officer Ella French and critically wounding her partner during a traffic stop last August (see 12/17/22 update).

6/30/22  To identify the person who first bought a gun recovered from a crime, ATF employees ask manufacturers, distributors and dealers to trace that weapon through their records. Rules prohibit ATF from digitizing the results, so trace requests are returned to police on paper. To help detect gun trafficking schemes, Illinois just established “The Crime Gun Connect Platform,” a computerized registry that compiles all trace replies to agencies within the State into a searchable database.

6/28/22  “Trust me we gone keep you with all the artillery.” Setting up each transaction with expletive-laden text messages, two Indiana men sold “an arsenal” of handguns and assault rifles to undercover Feds in Chicago who pretended they supplied local gang members. Devante Brown, 27, and Corey Sartin, 19, were indicted for conspiracy, unlicensed dealing and, in Brown’s case, felon with a gun. They were arrested last week with four pistols, four rifles, and two ghost guns for which they expected to receive $16,500.

6/25/22  Passed in the wake of recent massacres, the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” was signed into law. It enhances background checks to include juvenile records, helps fund State “Red Flag Laws” and mental health programs, includes “boyfriends” in the definition of domestic partners who may be barred from having guns, and specifically prohibits “straw” purchases (i.e. buying guns on behalf of unqualified persons). It does not create waiting periods or ban assault weapons.

6/24/22  Many guns used in Chicago crimes are purchased by “straw buyers,” meaning third parties, at gun stores in Illinois and Indiana. Over the years ATF inspections of these Federally licensed dealers revealed serious recordkeeping problems. But even when a license revocation seemed clearly warranted, say, for knowingly delivering guns to a felon or straw buyer, the agency preferred to settle matters with a warning, and no substantial penalties were assessed.

6/14/22  Highlighting a continuing crackdown on gun trafficking, the Attorney General announced the indictment of a Texas man for unlicensed dealing in firearms. Over time he bought “at least 92” firearms, mostly handguns, and mostly from a single licensed dealer. He then resold them at will, mostly within a six month period. Sixteen of these guns have turned up in crimes, including murders and shootings.

5/28/22  An AP investigation of twenty-two mass shootings during the past decade reveals that the five most recent (Uvalde, TX 5/24/22; Buffalo NY 5/14/22; San Jose CA 5/26/21; Boulder CO 3/22/21; Atlanta GA 3/16/21) cost fifty-eight innocent lives. AR-15 style rifles were used in the three recent shootings with the highest tolls (Uvalde, 21; Buffalo, 10; Boulder, 10), and 9mm. pistols in the two others (San Jose, 9; Atlanta, 8). In each case the shooter legally bought their weapon from a dealer.

5/18/22  A new ATF report depicts a surge in firearms production during the past decade. Semi-automatic pistols have become the most popular weapon type. In 2020 over five and one-half million were manufactured and distributed in the U.S., with over half in 9mm. caliber. Between 2016-2021 the number of unserialized, privately assembled “ghost guns” reportedly recovered by police increased by 1,000 percent, from 1,758 to 19,344, with 692 used in murders. ATF Report (Vol. I)

5/11/22  In California all gun transfers, including between private persons, must go through a background check. Gun and purchaser information is perpetually stored in a State database. That data is an integral part of a new, State-funded effort at U.C. Davis to measure gun violence and assess and develop preventive measures. But gun-rights groups object to the project’s intrusion into privacy and have challenged the Constitutionality of the authorizing legislation in State and Federal courts.

5/6/22  Addressing a gathering of police chiefs at ATF Headquarters, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced his commitment to remedying the problem of untraceable firearms. Regulations are being prepared that would treat gun parts kits as guns and require that even incomplete housings be serialized. Sellers of parts kits must have a gun dealer’s license and keep records. And should an unserialized “ghost gun” appear in a dealer’s inventory, applying a serial number would be mandatory.

4/14/22  ATF agents arrested fourteen persons for trafficking nearly 400 handguns into Philadelphia. Three-hundred were bought from gun dealers in Atlanta, and the remainder from dealers in South Carolina. Some of the purchases were made by “straw buyers” on behalf of the traffickers. Charges include conspiracy, unlicensed gun dealing, and making false statements to licensed gun dealers. Federal agents were initially tipped off about the scheme when they discovered that guns being recovered by police from shootings and other crimes were recently purchased in nearby States.

4/2/22  Federal agents arrested three enlisted military servicemen from Tennessee and nine members of a Chicago street gang for an illegal gun-distribution conspiracy. According to the indictment, the soldiers bought dozens of guns and large quantities of ammunition from licensed dealers in Clarksville, Tennessee and Oak Grove, Kentucky, then brought the goods to Chicago and resold them to members of the Pocket Town Gangster Disciples “to facilitate...ongoing violent disputes” between gangs.

3/28/22  Federal agents discovered that a gun used in a California shooting came from a Georgia gun store. That connection led to the indictment of two Californians and three Georgians in a trafficking scheme that supplied more than 500 guns to felons and other private buyers on the West coast. Meanwhile the Feds are considering prosecuting an LAPD Captain and an L.A. sheriff’s deputy who resold dozens of guns they bought from an employee at the police academy gun store (he pled guilty to stealing them from inventory.) Whether they were hobbyists or unlicensed gun dealers is a key issue.

1/31/22  A University of Chicago study reveals that most guns recovered from local gang members by police are older weapons that moved through “underground markets” of gun sellers and buyers. Incarcerated persons report that’s how they mostly get their guns. Gangs have also become involved,  creating distribution networks in which “gun runners” move substantial quantities between areas.

12/21/21  Los Angeles has sued the long-standing, privately-managed gun store at the LAPD academy for negligence and breach of contract for failing to supervise its employees, thus allowing its manager to profit by stealing guns and selling them to cops on the side (see 11/30/21.) But the D.A. has refused to prosecute several of those cops, and they are in turn suing the city for damaging their reputations.

12/10/21  Two $100 million lawsuits have been filed against the Oxford Township school district by families of the victims. An investigation by the Washington Post revealed that families of would-be shooters prevented a handful of like events in past years. In 2018, in Everett, Washington, the guardian of Joshua O’Connor, 18, discovered the once-badly abused teen’s elaborate written plans to stage a Columbine-like massacre. She also found the 9mm. rifle he had just bought to carry out his intentions. Police were called, and their search turned up bomb parts. In 2019, after pleading guilty to attempted murder and other charges, O’Connor was sentenced to 22 years.

Smash-and-grabs continue to beset Southern California retailers. And when it comes to guns, the consequences could be especially profound. In Garden Grove, masked thieves broke into a gun store during the early morning hours and got away with forty firearms. They sped off in a pair of BMW’s.

12/4/21  A prosecutor explained why the parents of the Oxford high school shooter were charged with manslaughter. (Click here for the video.) One day before the massacre, a teacher caught the youth searching for ammunition on his phone. His parents were informed. His mother later messaged her son “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.” On the day of the shooting, while the parents were at the school, they were shown a photo of a note their son wrote. It depicted a gun, a bullet, a bleeding person, and these comments: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me”,  “Blood everywhere”, “My life is useless”, “The world is dead.” But no one looked in the student’s backpack. His parents declined to take the boy home, and an hour later he committed the massacre.

According to the Washington Post, there have been 34 school shootings this year. But twenty States, including Michigan, lack “child access prevention laws” that require guns in households with minors be kept locked up. That, says the Post, is crucial, as its review of 105 school shootings committed by youths revealed that eighty percent got their guns from their homes, or those of friends or relatives.

12/2/21  A fourth student, age 17, succumbed in the massacre at Michigan’s Oxford High School. Authorities announced that the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, is being charged as an adult with murder and terrorism. He had apparently revealed his intentions the previous evening on an Instagram post that pictured the gun in his hands: “just got my new beauty today...I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow, Oxford.” On that day, but before the massacre, Crumbley’s parents were  summoned to his school over their son’s “concerning behavior.” Years earlier Crumbley’s mother posted an “open letter” to President Trump complaining about her son’s education and extolling gun ownership. Authorities may charge the parents for leaving the gun unsecured.

12/1/21  Armed with a 9mm. pistol his father recently bought, a 15-year old boy opened fire at Oxford High School, located in a suburban Detroit community. He killed three students, ages 14, 16 and 17, and wounding eight others, including a teacher. Three of the surviving students are in critical condition. The shooter peacefully surrendered. His motive is presently unknown.

11/30/21  Last year LAPD investigators discovered that Archi Duenas stole dozens of guns from the gun store he managed at the police academy. He resold many to cops, who should have known better. His thievery ultimately earned him probation. Problem is, some of his badge-wearing customers, including a station commander, were also selling guns as an unregulated sideline, even offering so-called “off roster” guns that State laws normally keep out of civilian hands. Several are under investigation.

9/26/21  On January 1, 2016 burglars smashed into the showcase of a Wisconsin gun store and stole nine guns. At least four wound up in Chicago. One, a Glock 17 9mm. pistol recovered that July, was linked by tests on spent cartridges to 27 Chicago shootings, including two murders. Less than two weeks after the burglary, another of the guns was used by the occupant of one car to shoot and kill an occupant of another. According to authorities, gun thefts and straw purchases in neighboring states, primarily Indiana and Wisconsin, help feed the violence that engulfs Chicago.

8/12/21  Chicago police superintendent David Brown blasted the Federal judge overseeing the straw purchase charge against Jamel Danzy for releasing him from custody pending trial. Danzy admitted he bought the gun for an acquaintance, Eric Morgan, who traveled to Indiana to pick it up. Morgan used the pistol several months later to murder CPD officer Ella French and critically wound her partner.

8/10/21  Chicago brothers Emonte Morgan, 21 and Eric Morgan, 22 were charged with murdering police officer Ella French. Both have serious criminal records, and Eric Morgan is a felon. Indiana resident Jamel Danzy admitted he acted as a “straw buyer” by buying the Glock pistol used in the killing at a store, then giving it to Eric Morgan, whose record prohibits him from buying guns. Danzy was Federally charged.

8/5/21  Nine New York residents were charged in Federal court with acquiring dozens of guns through a straw buyer who bought them at six retail stores in Georgia. These guns were then smuggled into New York. Eight have been recovered by police in four states. One was seized from a New York City man who fired the weapon at an officer; four more were found during a murder search warrant.

7/23/21  To disrupt illegal gun distribution DOJ recently formed “Firearms Trafficking Strike Forces” in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Sacramento and Washington, D.C. US Attorneys and ATF agents will partner with local police to identify “straw buyers,” who buy guns for illicit resale, and to interrupt the flow of guns from source regions where many guns used in violent crimes originate.

7/20/21  In the wake of unremitting gun violence - 61 were shot, with ten killed, during the most recent weekend - Chicago police aren’t waiting for the Feds to combat gun trafficking. A fifty-officer anti-gun trafficking team was just placed on the street. Its mission is to go after “unscrupulous” gun dealers, straw buyers, and other sources of the guns that beset the city. And they beseech the public to help.

7/3/21  Gun control activists are pressing President Biden to act against unlicensed persons who make unregulated gun sales online and at gun shows, without complying with any laws or requiring background checks. In 2018 Thomas Caldwell, an unlicensed Wisconsin man who had been repeatedly warned by ATF about selling guns over Armslist, was sentenced to prison after a felon used one of his guns, a Glock 9mm. pistol, to kill Chicago police commander Paul Bauer.

6/24/21  As a key part of his anti-violence strategy, President Biden announced a crackdown on lawbreaking by licensed firearms dealers. “If you willfully sell a gun to someone who’s prohibited, my message to you is this: We’ll find you and we’ll seek your license to sell guns. We’ll make sure you can’t sell death and mayhem on our streets.” (See 10/24/24 update)

6/23/21  DOJ announced that US Attorneys and ATF are forming “strike forces” to combat illicit gun trafficking ”corridors” that supply five areas highly impacted by gun violence: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. Click here for our gun sources article

6/19/21  Missouri is the latest of nine States to enact laws this year that “discourage or prohibit” local police from cooperating in the enforcement of Federal gun laws. These restrictions are intended to soften the blow should new Federal laws pass that expand background checks or restrict the kinds of guns one can possess. Whether these pre-emptive rules will hamper the Feds’ ability to trace guns seized by police so as to identify illegal purchases and discover illicit resale channels is as yet unknown.

6/17/21  Nearly two-thousand military firearms were “lost or stolen” during the past decade. Many have been used in violent crimes. In 2015 a reservist down on his luck stole ten pistols and six fully automatic rifles from an armory, then resold them on the street.  A decade ago more than two dozen AK-47 type rifles were stolen from a Fresno base by MP’s; some of the guns wound up with a street gang.

5/12/21  Three U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Ft. Campbell: Demarcus Adams, 21, Jarius Brunson, 22, and Brandon Miller, 22, have been arrested for gun trafficking. It’s alleged that they bought 91 guns during the past year from gun stores near their base, in Kentucky and Tennessee. Miller is accused of taking these guns to Chicago and transferring them to acquaintances. Several of the weapons were recovered from a March 26, 2021 shootout in Chicago where one was killed and seven were shot.

4/17/20 In testimony before the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement, a high-ranking ATF official identified “privately made firearms” as an important and “increasingly more common” gun source for criminals. Other sources mentioned included theft and straw purchase.

10/25/19 Undercover California state agents regularly watch California residents acquire California-illegal assault rifles at gun shows in Arizona and Nevada. Buyers are tailed when they return to California, where they are stopped and the loot is seized. “The...problem is that California has a 608-mile border with Nevada...and Nevada’s gun regulations are less stringent,” a prosecutor said.

7/23/19 A national study that compared levels of household firearms ownership with gun homicide reveals a significant relationship between more ownership and more domestic homicides but none between ownership level and non-domestic homicides. The recently released 2016 BJS survey of prison inmates reports that ninety percent of those who used a gun in their crime did not buy it at retail. Forty-three percent got it from a street source; six percent stole it.

8/23/18 Federal prosecutors charged a 47-year old Las Vegas man who bought hundreds of guns and resold them using the Internet. Dozens were later recovered in crimes, most recently the murder of a Sacramento, CA sheriff’s deputy. ATF news release  US Attorney news release