Gun store owner: Weapon traced to scene of Burnsville shooting was straw purchased
The owner of a Burnsville gun retailer confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that a gun part found at Shannon Gooden’s home was straw purchased and traced to his store.
Investigators say Gooden, 38, shot and killed two Burnsville police officers and one firefighter-paramedic before killing himself on Feb. 18.
John McConkey, the owner of the Modern Sportsman gun shop in Burnsville, said in an email, “One of the firearms found at the scene in the February 18th incident was traced to our Burnsville location.”
McConkey added, “We are working with the [Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] to assist them with their investigation.”
Even though far more guns get to criminal's hands from straw purchases than gun shows, the ATF does not aggressively prosecute straw purchasers. Last year locally a person who made 33 known straw purchases, each with a potential ten-year sentence, plea bargained to get a total sentence of two years.
= new reply since forum marked as read
even though murder, lying on a 4473, disobeying possession laws, are already illegal.
If they pass laws to stop a 'problem', and enforce it, and it (gasps) stops the problem, they don't have something to point to and say "We tried, and it just isn't working, we need to do more." I'm reminded of the malt shop scene in Trainspotting (going from memory here, and it was a bit ago) where the voiceover(?) says something to the effect that it's a fine line. You have to put in enough effort on the job interview, that the agency believes you are trying (and will continue to pay you), but not so much that you actually get the job.
Side note: This drives me up a wall...
The owner of a Burnsville gun retailer confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that a gun part found at Shannon Gooden’s home was straw purchased and traced to his store.
"Part"? You mean the gun? The serialized portion that whether it's a frame, a receiver, or a FCU, the federal freaking government, since 1968, has classified it as the firearm? If I was charitable, I would write it off as garden variety ignorance. The typical "don't know, don't care to know, la, la, la, quit 'gunsplaining' to me." Though, there seems to be more and more 'stories' decrying the dangers of people ordering "gun parts" online and having them shipped to their homes. The phrase hardly seems coincidental.
