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FFL dealers arrested for selling guns to convicts
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Weapons dealers arrested for selling guns to convicted felons
By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
09/05/2002
Two Delaware men face federal weapons charges after a sting operation in which the two allegedly sold guns and ammunition to convicted felons.
Camden gun dealer Jason L. Rash and Smyrna gun salesman William Francis appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday after prosecutors accused them of selling guns to an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, even though the agent told them he was buying the guns for convicted felons.
Both men were released after they appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge, who ordered them to have no further contact with guns.
This was the first undercover operation aimed at federally licensed gun shops in Delaware, U.S. Attorney Colm Connolly said.
Rash owns a federally licensed gun dealership called J.J.'s Gun Barn. In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, he was accused of selling ammunition and firearms to a convicted felon. Francis, who works for Smyrna Sporting Goods, was charged with the same offense, along with conspiracy to sell firearms to a convict.
If convicted on all counts, Rash faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and Francis a maximum of 45 years.
The two gun dealerships were targeted after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were tipped off about possible illegal gun sales, said Michael Bouchard, special agent in charge of the bureau's Maryland and Delaware region.
"This is obviously a very aggressive approach to combatting gun crimes," Bouchard said. "This is not over."
Bouchard said his agency rarely puts together such undercover operations because most federal prosecutors don't make prosecuting gun dealers a priority.
Before Connolly became U.S. Attorney last year, he said in a 1999 speech that federal prosecutors have traditionally focused on prosecuting criminals who buy guns illegally, not the dealers who sell them. He said he began planning the sting operation as soon as he took office last year.
Of the 104,000 federally licensed gun dealers in the United States, 389 sold about half of all the guns used in crimes traced by the federal government in 1997 and 1998, Connolly said. Of those dealerships 19 had their licenses revoked.
"I'm trying to send a message to corrupt gun dealers," Connolly said. "If you've got reasonable cause to believe the purchase is illegal, you can't do it."
Reach Steven Church at 324-2786 or schurch@delawareonline.com.
http://delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2002/09/05weaponsdealersa.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
09/05/2002
Two Delaware men face federal weapons charges after a sting operation in which the two allegedly sold guns and ammunition to convicted felons.
Camden gun dealer Jason L. Rash and Smyrna gun salesman William Francis appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday after prosecutors accused them of selling guns to an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, even though the agent told them he was buying the guns for convicted felons.
Both men were released after they appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge, who ordered them to have no further contact with guns.
This was the first undercover operation aimed at federally licensed gun shops in Delaware, U.S. Attorney Colm Connolly said.
Rash owns a federally licensed gun dealership called J.J.'s Gun Barn. In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, he was accused of selling ammunition and firearms to a convicted felon. Francis, who works for Smyrna Sporting Goods, was charged with the same offense, along with conspiracy to sell firearms to a convict.
If convicted on all counts, Rash faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and Francis a maximum of 45 years.
The two gun dealerships were targeted after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were tipped off about possible illegal gun sales, said Michael Bouchard, special agent in charge of the bureau's Maryland and Delaware region.
"This is obviously a very aggressive approach to combatting gun crimes," Bouchard said. "This is not over."
Bouchard said his agency rarely puts together such undercover operations because most federal prosecutors don't make prosecuting gun dealers a priority.
Before Connolly became U.S. Attorney last year, he said in a 1999 speech that federal prosecutors have traditionally focused on prosecuting criminals who buy guns illegally, not the dealers who sell them. He said he began planning the sting operation as soon as he took office last year.
Of the 104,000 federally licensed gun dealers in the United States, 389 sold about half of all the guns used in crimes traced by the federal government in 1997 and 1998, Connolly said. Of those dealerships 19 had their licenses revoked.
"I'm trying to send a message to corrupt gun dealers," Connolly said. "If you've got reasonable cause to believe the purchase is illegal, you can't do it."
Reach Steven Church at 324-2786 or schurch@delawareonline.com.
http://delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2002/09/05weaponsdealersa.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878