Shielded from view by a law passed seven years ago, dealers who sell an unusual number of guns used in crimes have avoided public scrutiny, but a year-long investigation by the Washington Post reveals the sources of many crime guns.
Using unpublicized state data and local police evidence logs, The Post compiled its own databases of more than 35,000 gun traces and discovered that some dealers are far more likely than others to be the source of guns used in crimes.
In Virginia, 60 percent of the 6,800 guns that were sold and later seized by police since 1998 can be traced to just 40 dealers of the 3,400 firearms dealers licensed in the state.
In Maryland, a single gun store, Realco, sold 86 guns that have been linked to homicide cases during the past 18 years, far outstripping the total from any other store in the region. Over that period, police have recovered more than 2,500 guns sold by the shop, including more than 300 used in non-fatal shootings, assaults and robberies.
The Post says tracing brings into sharp relief the fact that virtually all crime guns are first sold as new weapons by a licensed dealer to someone who cleared a background check. But in many cases involving crime guns, the sale is to a “straw buyer” who illegally makes the purchase on behalf of a felon. Firearms dealers, including those identified in The Post’s investigation, say they work hard to prevent such illegal sales. Law enforcement officials say they are aware of dealers who sell an unusual number of crime guns, but if the shop is following the law, there is little they can do.
Congress passed the Tiahrt amendment in 2003 under pressure from the gun lobby, removing from the public record a government database that traces guns recovered in crimes back to the dealers. The National Rifle Association and other gun rights activists told the Post that releasing the trace data unfairly tainted honest businesses by demonizing legal gun sales. But academic experts and law enforcement officials argue that gun traces can be used to help identify dealers that, knowingly or not, are selling guns to traffickers.
The Tiahrt amendment effectively protects retailers from lawsuits and public scrutiny, and keeps attention away from the relationship between rogue gun dealers and the black market in firearms. It also prevents cities and interest groups from using lawsuits against the firearms industry in the same way lawsuits were used against tobacco companies to change their behavior.
