Defense Articles

“The tragic shooting last year in Columbine High School showed us what happens when guns fall into the wrong hands,” Clinton said at the White House.

The report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which Clinton described as the federal government’s “most comprehensive look at the firearms industry,” revealed that only about 1.2 percent of gun dealers account for 57 percent of all guns traced to crime.

“I’m pleased to announce today that we’re beginning the most aggressive effort ever undertaken to ensure responsible behavior by gun dealers,” Clinton said.

Among the executive actions announced by the president:

c ATF agents will conduct focused inspections on the 1,000 gun dealers who had 10 or more guns involved in crimes traced to them in 1999.

c ATF agents will increase scrutiny significantly on about 50 dealers regarded as uncooperative because they keep inadequate records or fail to respond promptly to requests for crime-gun traces.

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Rogue gun dealers targeted/ Clinton announces crackdown on
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs),  Feb 5, 2000  by Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON - President Clinton launched a national crackdown Friday on rogue gun dealers, outlining a series of tough regulatory actions against dealers linked to a disproportionate number of crime guns.

The president, who has pushed to expand federal gun control efforts since last April’s massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, promised tougher scrutiny and enhanced enforcement at the same time he released a report on America’s burgeoning firearms industry.

“The tragic shooting last year in Columbine High School showed us what happens when guns fall into the wrong hands,” Clinton said at the White House.
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The report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which Clinton described as the federal government’s “most comprehensive look at the firearms industry,” revealed that only about 1.2 percent of gun dealers account for 57 percent of all guns traced to crime.

“I’m pleased to announce today that we’re beginning the most aggressive effort ever undertaken to ensure responsible behavior by gun dealers,” Clinton said.

Among the executive actions announced by the president:

c ATF agents will conduct focused inspections on the 1,000 gun dealers who had 10 or more guns involved in crimes traced to them in 1999.

c ATF agents will increase scrutiny significantly on about 50 dealers regarded as uncooperative because they keep inadequate records or fail to respond promptly to requests for crime-gun traces.

c A proposed rule requiring all licensed firearms dealers to conduct regular inventories and report discrepancies to focus on stolen firearms.

The National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist, James Baker, denounced the initiative, calling it “the latest installment in the Clinton/Gore plan to drive lawful and licensed gun dealers out of business repackaged into a news event for an election year.

“I guess that begs the question that if authorities suspect some gun dealers of wrongdoing, why haven’t they already been investigated?” Baker asked.

Clinton also wants Congress to give the ATF authority to conduct three unannounced inspections of gun dealers each year instead of the current one.

The president described as “astonishing” the fraction of licensed dealers whose guns wind up involved in crimes. He acknowledged, however, that the statistics mirror those first reported about eight months ago by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Clinton continues to blame Congress - and the Republican majority - for blocking a series of “common-sense” gun restrictions, including three-day waiting periods for background checks at gun shows - an expansion on the Brady gun law five-day waiting period for handgun purchases from standard gun retailers that was enacted in 1993, Clinton’s first year in office.

The gun-show initiative is the most recent in a string of gun proposals by Clinton, who also want to hire 500 more ATF agents.

“When 12 children are dying every day in America because of gun violence,” Clinton said, “we can’t wait for congressional action.”

Guns in the Springs

Rich Marianos, the agent in charge of the ATF office in Colorado Springs, said he’s not sure President Clinton’s comments about unlawful gun sales will change how the agency works.

Marianos said his office has received no new policy directives, and trying to stop the spread of illegal firearms has always been a priority.

In fact, Marianos said his agency and the Colorado Springs Police Department created what they call a gun interdiction unit in April to track and stop the illegal transfer of guns.

He said the ownership of every recovered firearm that was used in a crime in Colorado Springs is traced within 24 hours. Within two weeks officers get a complete history of the weapon, from the very first seller to the last. That, he said, often reveals how a firearm got into the hands of a criminal.

“I think he’s wrong with regard to his interpretation of the word ‘willfully,’” Gardiner said Tuesday. Gardiner said he quoted recent Supreme Court opinions when he argued that the Baltimore ATF must prove that Scheuerman “consciously disregarded the law” and that his actions were an “aggravated or extreme departure from standards of ordinary care.”

“If [’willfully’] means that in every other federal statute, they probably meant it to mean that in this statute,” Gardiner said, arguing Quarles’ cites were outdated. “There are cases pre-1986 that came up with [Quarles’] terminology, but the difference is Congress amended the statute in 1986 to include the word ‘willfully.’”

Asked why Scheuerman was only cited again seven years after his first violation and six years after his second, Clare Weber, spokeswoman for the Baltimore division of ATF, said her office’s roughly 10 investigators had many federal firearm licensees to monitor.

“There’s a lot of FFLs in the state of Maryland, and we’re doing our best to get out there,” Weber said.

As for whether Scheuerman might face further discipline for the hundreds of missing guns, U.S. Attorney’s office spokeswoman Marcia Murphy said the erstwhile gun dealer has already faced stiff justice by losing his license.

“Since he runs a gun shop, that’s pretty extreme,” Murphy said of the revocation. “This is not an everyday occurrence.”

Gardiner had not spoken to his client and could not say whether Scheuerman would appeal the decision or if he would continue to operate the non-firearms part of his Fallston store.

In a similar case last February, U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson upheld the ATF’s decision to revoke the federal firearms- dealers license of RSM Inc., owner of Valley Gun and Police Supply in Parkville, Baltimore County. That decision was appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the revocation.

WHAT THE COURT HELD

Case:

Scheuerman v. Herbert (ATF), U.S. Dist. Ct. No. 102. Published. Opinion by Quarles, J. Filed May 15, 2007.

Issue:

Was the Baltimore director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives correct in revoking a Harford County man’s federal firearms-dealer license after the man was cited for 817 violations of the Gun Control Act?

Holding:

Yes; affirmed. The gun dealer willfully violated the act, and his punishment was thus appropriate.

A university education generally requires a major investment in money, time and effort. For gun dealers, however, there is a significant exception to that rule: SHOT Show University. Sponsored by the National Association of Firearms Retailers (NAFR), the university will be presented on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006, the day before the start of SHOT Show 2006.

The fifth edition of SHOT Show University will be held at the same location as the SHOT Show, the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“The SHOT Show is the largest single event attended by retailers in the business. So we don’t have to create an extra destination, and by holding the university a day earlier than the show’s opening, those who attend don’t miss any of the show,” said John Badowski, who until recently served as the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) director of retail partnerships and the managing director of NAFR, NSSF’s retailer division.

The university will be held in meeting rooms at the convention center, where experts in the shooting sports industry will present programs of value to dealers. And since each dealer’s time is valuable, the university’s “semester” is boiled down to one day. The classes run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., with an hour for lunch. There also is a free reception following the classes from 5 to 5:30 p.m.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of the university is the tuition. If you are a member of NAFR, the cost is $50. If you are not, you’ll pay $100. Furthermore, if a dealer isn’t satisfied with his SHOT Show University experience, NAFR will refund the registration fee. There aren’t many colleges that offer that guarantee.

The attorney for a popular gun dealership that has been ordered to surrender its sales license said Wednesday that a decision will be made today on whether to continue a legal fight to keep the store open.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker last week refused to overturn a federal government-imposed closing date for Trader Sports Inc., which was found to have repeatedly violated federal gun- sales laws. He gave CEO Anthony Cucchiara until Friday to either surrender his sales license or seek a stay with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.

The order essentially forces the closure of Trader Sports, one of the largest firearms dealers in Northern California, said Malcolm Segal, the Sacramento-based attorney for the company.

“I would say that by (today) sometime, we will know,” Segal said. “It doesn’t take much to file an appeal.”

Segal said Cucchiara has been negotiating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for a license revocation extension. The ATF had ordered Cucchiara to surrender his firearms license by today.

Segal said an extension is needed to allow the store’s estimated 20 workers to find new jobs.

“The most important thing is making sure his long-term employees are taken care of,” Segal said. “Some of these people have been with him for 20 years. The judge recognized that in court when he (addressed) the hardship that will flow from the loss of his license.”

who has owned the store located at 685 E. 14th St. since 1958, was not available for comment, but Segal said his client has been emotionally overwhelmed by the ordeal.

“It’s very, very stressful, after owning this business all these years and to suddenly lose your license, particularly under the circumstances with some of these people relying on him,” Segal said.

The ATF issued its notice of revocation on July 29, 2004, after two inspections by federal investigators found that Cucchiara failed to keep and properly maintain records of the acquisition and disposition of all firearms as required under federal law.

During the inspections, the ATF found that 337 guns sold at Trader Sports had been traced to crimes between 1988 and 1996. Of those 337 firearms, the ATF found that 181 “had a short time to crime,” meaning they had recently been sold before being found at crime scenes by police.

Trader Sports, which was once called one of the most “irresponsible” gun dealers in the state by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also was found to be one of the most notorious gun dealers in the nation in a study by the Justice Department.

The report, released last month, identified the nation’s five leading sellers of guns that had been traced to crimes during 2005. Trader Sports was second on the list, with 447.

Each of the five dealerships had an average of one gun traced to a crime each day, the report said.

c2006 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

A gun dealer agreed to pay $850,000 to a woman whose 7-year-old son was killed with a revolver the dealer sold to a middleman who illegally resold the gun on the street.

The settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit, approved by a judge Friday, has implications nationwide for gun shop owners who sell to “straw” buyers, or front men who buy arms for gun traffickers.

The Americans for Gun Safety Foundation (AGSF), an organization it says “supports the rights of law abiding Americans to own guns,” released a report in mid-January that attacked many honest gun dealers.

The report, “Selling Crime,” which AGSF says “lifts (a) veil of secrecy,” uses data from the ATF to name 120 gun stores in 22 states that AGSF reports sold the most guns that later were used in crime.

“Known high-crime dealers are being shielded from public scrutiny rather than investigated by the government,” said Jim Kessler, AGSF’s policy director.

The report received widespread coverage in the media, drawing attention to many honest gun dealers who felt they were maligned. One gun dealer called it “profiling.”

“If there are dealers who are doing things illegally, then they should be shut down,” the dealer said, asking not to be identified. “But this report paints all of us with the same brush, never mind all the federal and state requirements we must meet to sell a gun. This is profiling.”

The AGSF report also criticized the Bush Administration for now pursuing “high-crime dealers.”

“Prosecution of dealers who break the law is rare,” AGSF said in a news release. “Last year, federal prosecutors filed only 27 cases against corrupt gun stores, a reduction of 25 percent from the last year of the Clinton Administration when 36 cases were prosecuted.”

Mark Corallo, the director of public affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice was quick to challenge AGSF’s position, pointing out that gun-crime prosecutions have reached a record level, and the violent crime rate has dropped 21 percent under President Bush’s leadership.

“We’re also shutting down and prosecuting corrupt gun dealers in higher numbers,” wrote Corallo in USA Today. “This apparently hasn’t registered with the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation. It relied on out-of-date and incomplete information to draw conclusions that the evidence just doesn’t support about gun traces and this administration’s prosecutions of gun crimes. Firearms licensees who have guns traced back to them have not necessarily broken the law. Basic math explains that those who sell more guns and those located in or near high-crime neighborhoods, or where police trace all crime guns in their custody, will have a higher number of traces.”

Pan a gun dealer make money selling bowhunting gear? According to two dealers who run successful gun and archery shops, most definitely. However, there are several important steps you must take in order to bag bowhunting’s big bucks. And perhaps the biggest step is learning about bowhunting itself.

Corey Partridge and David Dennison own Strictly Outdoors Pawn and Gun, located in Harrisburg, Ill. When they opened their business 13 years ago they did not stock archery equipment. Years later they decided to sell archery gear and failed because they knew nothing about bowhunting and its equipment.

“We tried archery the first time about nine years ago,” Partridge said. “We didn’t have anyone knowledgeable about archery on staff, and neither one of us knew anything about it. We found out real quickly that you can’t sell what you don’t know.”

Tom Colvin, owner of Archer’s Spot & Pro Shop in Bloomfield, Ill., added guns to his archery shop. He said one of the most important ingredients necessary to selling bowhunting successfully is having an understanding of, and a love for, the sport.

“To succeed, you need to service what you sell and do it well,” he said.

Colvin said that knowing your market is important: If your gunshop is located within 20 miles of several established archery pro shops, jumping into archery will be a big risk. However, if your analysis reveals that you have a market and you either love bowbunting or know that your customers do adding archery to your store can reap rewards.

“If a retailer is good at selling archery and takes good care of his customers, you’re talking about potentially $100,000 a year in sales or better,” Colvin said.

Two-Season Hunters

After Partridge and Dennison stopped carrying archery equipment many of their customers continued to ask for bowrelated gear. While the partners knew they had a bowhunting market, they also knew they needed to learn about the sport. About four years ago, Dennison attended Precision Shooting Equipment’s (PSE) Dealer School. Armed with the dealer school’s knowledge, he hired someone to run the archery side of the business. And Strictly Outdoors Pawn and Gun was back into bowhunting.

It is a decision the partners have never regretted.

“Having archery in our shop has enhanced our business greatly,” Partridge said. “During bowhunting season, we have people who don’t come in for rifles and pistols, but do come in for bows.”

The increased traffic has meant crossover sales in both product categories.

“People who bowhunt usually are overall outdoor enthusiasts,” Partridge said. “So a lot of them begin shopping for firearms and firearms accessories.”

In addition, some of the shop’s gun customers have become interested in bowhunting. This results in increased business — because two-season hunters buy more hunting equipment, from bows and arrows to game calls, scents and treesands.

Repeat Sales, Better Margins

The product area where Dennison and Partridge have seen the largest increase in sales is clothing.

“Camouflage clothing is important to both bow and to gun hunters,” Partridge said. “We’ve sold a lot more clothing since we added archery to the shop.”

Another big advantage of adding archery to your shop is repeat sales. In much the same way target shooters repeatedly visit gun shops to buy ammunition, bowhunters are always buying additional arrows and accessories. They are also interested in new gadgets for their bows. Dealers who handle bow equipment quickly learn that serious bowhunters shoot a lot of targets and not just during archery season. By entering the archery market, dealers are extending their selling season by more than just the six weeks or so past bowhounting season.

Easton XX75 Yukon Gamegetter III

In their shop, Partridge said their firearm sales still far exceed their archery sales. However, with the higher margins on archery equipment, bow profits are an important factor in the shop’s bottom line. And Colvin agrees.

“You can make more on archery than you can on guns,” he said. “I mark my guns up about $50 on the average. But the markup on bows is $75 to $150. On accessories I make about 35 to 40 percent.”

Getting Started

Partridge said his best advice for the gun dealer thinking about going into archery is to hire someone who knows archery.

“Whether someone buys a bow from you or from Wal-Mart, they’re going to bring it in for you to set it up, to tune it, and to help them solve any problems,” Partridge said. “It doesn’t matter how much the retailer knows about archery gear, he still needs to have someone else knowledgeable in the shop. Then the retailer needs to learn as much as he can from the person he hires.”

One theme of this month’s issue of Shooting Industry is a look into the future of shooting and the gun business. When we gaze in that direction, there are few of us in the industry who see much in the way of moonbeams and butterflies.

Look for a big push by Handgun Control Inc. to shut down gun shows and close what they consider to be the major “loophole” in the Brady Bill: private sales of firearms between citizens. In theory, this should eliminate significant competition. In practice, something else may happen.

Remember when some gun dealers were saying that getting rid of the “basement FFL dealers” they called “pond scum” was all that stood between “legitimate” gun dealers and prosperity? Well, the current administration has savagely cut down the number of non-storefront FFL holders, yet most full-time gun retailers still find their businesses in a deep slump.

Will a ban on private sales of guns between civilians be as rosy as some say it will for the full-time firearms dealer? Down the road - a ways down the road, perhaps - that might become true. However, that particular light at the end of the tunnel might just have an onrushing locomotive attached.

Yes, making gun shows a thing of the past might send more local people to your door instead of a visiting competitor’s table at the shows. However, many full-time gun dealers make a considerable percentage of their income at gun shows instead of in the store, since, while few people will travel from out of state to visit a single gun shop, many will make the trek for the cornucopia of goodies found at a gun show. In short, while eliminating gun shows may eliminate some competition, it will also eliminate what is, or could be, a significant portion of your retail business from a customer base you wouldn’t normally be able to tap into.

“Last Chance” Syndrome

Remember the sales boom of ‘93 and ‘94, fueled by the public’s perception of “it’s our last chance to buy guns and stock up on ammo”? As front-page stories appear in newspapers about imminent closing of the Brady “loophole” (which many of your customers probably don’t even realize now exists), “last chance” syndrome will likely strike again. A whole bunch of your regular customers who were planning to buy their next guns from you will now start thinking, “This is my last chance to legally purchase a few guns that are ‘off paper’ that I can be certain my kids will inherit after I’m gone if they ban private ownership of handguns or even all firearms by then.’”

As everyone in the industry learned in the “Black Friday’ aftermath of the ‘94 sales pinnacle, the American shooter and gun enthusiast has a finite budget. If he decides to apply that budget to off-paper guns he thinks are “confiscation-proof,” and can be socked away for his heirs, each of those purchases is going to be money out of your pocket. He’ll be shopping through the classified ads in the newspaper and those “shopper news” publications. The only money of his you’ll see for a while will be when he buys a holster or a couple of boxes of ammo for a gun he bought in a private sale.

Before President Clinton is out of the White House, look for him to make massive attacks on gun owners’ civil rights that will make the import ban of April ‘98 appear trivial. By all accounts, his designated Democratic heir Al Gore is even worse on the gun issue. Few pragmatic observers of the political scene see a Republican emerging who will have much chance of winning the next presidential election. That tunnel we’ve been talking about is a long one, and any positive light at the end of it is pretty dim at the moment.

So, what to do? Here are a few suggestions, some of which you’ve heard here before.

Don’t neglect your regular customers. The average age of both the American hunter and the American shooter is climbing significantly. Handgunners have discovered that, since it’s the eyes that seem to go first, red-dot sights and scopes add another decade or more to an enthusiast’s shooting career. Look into the new small red-dot units, the Ashley Express handgun sight, ghost rings for handguns as well as long guns, and lasers. They make sense for older shooters whose vision is going in order to keep them buying more guns, ammo, and accessories from you.

Provide the equipment for alternate shooting experiences. Urban encroachment and political correctness continue to shut down established gun clubs and shooting ranges and stifle others before they can be built. That situation is going to get worse before it gets better. Conversely, air guns have never been as good as they are right now. Double your sales efforts in that direction. There is no reason each of your customers shouldn’t have a collection of air guns, a bullet trap in their basement or garage, and plenty of pellets and related accessories - all purchased from you.

In line with that, consider stocking devices like the Beamhit Training System. I’ve sold several. They hook up to a computer, something most of your customers already have in the home, and can be attached to several types of firearms. The customer realizes it’s like having his own shooting video game, with the bonus that he’s building “trigger time” with his own firearms. Set one up on display in your store and see what happens.