ATF list shows 6 Columbus stores that sold 25+ guns traced to crime in a single year
Six Columbus gun shops appear on a list of 1,300 outlets that each sold at least 25 guns traced to crimes in a single year, according to public records obtained by USA TODAY.
All shops on the list sold at least 25 guns traced to crimes by ATF within three years of their original purchase. The agency says that the short period of time between a weapon’s purchase and its use in a crime that involves gun violence could indicate illegal weapon trafficking.
Shops on the list must submit quarterly reports to ATF detailing secondhand gun sales, which the agency otherwise doesn’t track. The list includes everything from big box retailers such as Bass Pro Shops to independent pawn shops.
The data does not specify how the guns sold were used. It also doesn’t indicate any wrongdoing by the individual shops themselves. Larger retailers that sell high volumes of guns are more likely to appear on it, said Suzanna Dabkowski, a spokesperson for ATF’s Columbus field office.
The list is maintained as part of the ATF’s “Demand 2” program launched in 2000. Initially, shops that had sold 10 or more guns traced to crimes had to report used firearm sales. The Trump administration raised the minimum to 25 in 2018.
But some shops say inclusion on the list unfairly suggests they’ve done something wrong.
“I would be surprised if there's anyone running a tighter ship than we are,” said Eric Delbert, owner of L.E.P.D. Firearms, Range & Training Facility, one of the shops in Columbus on the list.
The facility is one of six in Columbus named in the records:
Ace Pawn Shop at 4896 W. Broad St.
Lev’s Pawn Shop at 3446 E. Main St.
Field & Stream at 4304 Easton Gateway
Gemco Coins Jewelry and Pawn at 5311 W. Broad St.
L.E.P.D. Firearms and Range at 999 Bethel Road
Vance Outdoors at 3723 Cleveland Ave.
Columbus shop owner: Program is based on a false premise
L.E.P.D. sells thousands of guns each year and is owned and run by law enforcement members; Delbert is a Perry County Township sergeant. After being placed in the Demand 2 program last year, Delbert asked ATF for documentation of the traced guns that landed the business in the program. Delbert said that by using the serial numbers combined with records from his store, he found several of those guns weren’t used to commit crimes.
In one case, he said a man going through a divorce had his guns placed in police custody to prevent his wife from selling them. Another gun was found in a vehicle during a drunken-driving arrest.
Delbert said calling such guns “crime guns,” a common term in media that ATF uses itself, is simply inaccurate.
“So I started thinking, OK, this whole program is based on a false premise,” Delbert said. Delbert has been in contact with politicians and has spoken repeatedly about the issue on OnTarget, a podcast he hosts.
Two employees of other shops who spoke to the Columbus Dispatch said the reporting requirements were easy to meet. Greg Martin, owner of Gemco Coins and Jewelry, said it takes him minutes to upload the necessary information.
John Kinney, a manager at Lev’s Pawn Shop, was neutral on the program and said it was just part of the legal requirements of being in the firearm business.
“It’s the law,” Kinney said. “We follow the law, and we cooperate with ATF.”
Dabkowski said all guns that are traced by ATF are counted toward a shop being part of the Demand 2 program. While in theory, law enforcement should only be tracing guns that are part of a criminal investigation, Dabowski said the guns might not be directly used to commit crime. She said a gun might be found in a crime scene and traced as part of the investigation, for example.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that an armed robbery was committed and that gun was used to rob someone, Dabowski said.
The Demand 2 program’s reporting requirements provide the agency with useful information about secondhand gun sales, Dabowski said. Once a gun enters the secondhand market it can be very difficult to trace — ATF would have to seek out each individual buyer to determine where the gun originated.
“I can see why they might be upset,” Dabowski said. “If I owned a business, I might see (the reporting) as just one more thing I have to do.”
ATF traces crime guns to first purchase
The ATF is responsible for “tracing” crime guns — taking the make, model and serial number and sifting through records to find the chain from manufacturer to first retail sale — to help police solve a crime.
ATF representatives are quick to note that being on their “Demand 2” list itself is not an indication of wrongdoing. Shops and pawn dealers in the program represent about 3% of the roughly 80,000 licensees nationwide.
“A number of factors, including geography, sales volume, secondary market transfers by an original lawful purchaser, and the level of sophistication of firearm traffickers, may be involved in a traced crime gun,” ATF spokeswoman Kristina Mastropasqua wrote in an email.
Not much is public about the source of crime guns, largely due to efforts by the gun lobby and a key congressional amendment known as Tiahrt.
Named after former Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., the 2003 law prohibits the ATF from releasing the trace data to researchers, members of the public, or even city and state officials not directly involved in the program.
The obscure Demand 2 program offers a window. The 24-year-old program popped into the public eye last April after Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., brought it up at a House subcommittee meeting with ATF Director Steven Dettelbach.
Clyde questioned whether crime gun traces are actually involved in “bona fide” crime since many tracing requests from local law enforcement to the ATF and ultimately gun sellers relate to guns that have been found by police or those stolen or possessed by people barred from having firearms.
What he failed to mention was that one of the two gun shops he owns, Clyde’s Armory, in Athens, Georgia, has been tagged with the added Demand 2 scrutiny after selling more than 25 guns since 2020 later traced to crimes, which the New York Times subsequently reported in August.
His shop also appears on the 2023 list provided to USA TODAY. Representatives for Clyde’s congressional office referred all questions to his campaign office, which declined to comment about the ATF program or his inclusion on the list.
Bass Pro, Dunham's, Scheels are huge volume gun sellers
The list itself is largely a reflection of the nation’s largest gun sellers — but advocates say the time-to-crime weighting helps dilute the impact of volume alone.
Bass Pro Shops has 49 stores on the list — nearly a third of its outlets, including Cabela's, in the U.S. Other large retailers include: Turner’s Outdoorsman (64% of stores), Scheels (59%), Rural King (26%) Sportman’s Warehouse (21%), Dunham’s Sports (10%).
None of those companies responded to requests for comment.
Mark Tosh, president of a chain of Virginia gun stores, speculated that any retailer that sells more than 2,000 guns annually would appear on the list.
“It’s the law of averages,” he said.
Town Gun Shop stores in Richmond and Collinsville, Virginia, are on the ATF list. Tosh blamed a large volume of sales and his decades in business. The two shops, he said, together sell thousands of guns a year. He also expressed no qualms about working with the ATF to track down crime guns.
“Our belief is when you buy a firearm you are a law-abiding citizen with good intent,” he said. “It doesn’t always work that way, so we don’t mind doing our part to trace firearms. It’s priority No. 1 when the tracing center calls.”
Stopping straw purchasers is a challenge, he said, noting that his staff recently flagged a buyer for whom law enforcement had made three consecutive trace requests.
“I had a conversation with that man, thanked him for his business, but said we had to protect him, our staff and our shop and wouldn’t sell to him anymore,” Tosh said. “I personally train my 24 employees to look for straw sales and everyone is empowered to terminate a sale.”
The ATF’s most recent nationwide gun tracing analysis showed that pistols were by far the most common type of gun tied to crime, about three-quarters, as opposed to rifles, revolvers, or shotguns. That likely explains some of the notable omissions on the Demand 2 list, like Walmart, which suspended handgun sales in 1993 before it also stopped selling some rifles like the AR-15 in 2019.
The most common manufacturers of pistols traced to crimes are Glock, Smith & Wesson, Taurus and Sturm Ruger, representing more than half of the pistols traced. Overall, the most traced firearm is the Glock 9 mm pistol, with nearly 130,000 guns traced to crime between 2017 and 2021.
In general, Keane — with the gun industry lobby — said the Demand 2 program is an effective tool for regulators to trace more used guns. He said the industry is doing its part, pointing to the National Shooting Sports Foundation's longtime “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy” campaign to prevent straw purchasing, as well as training for members in best practices.
But publicizing the Demand 2 list, he said, is misleading.
“The fact you’re on the program doesn't mean you’re a bad dealer or anything like that. It just means you fit within the parameters,” Keane said. “No one in the chain of commerce knows specifically why a firearm is being traced, it's just that it was traced.”
bagallion@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Gun violence: ATF data shows stores selling most guns used in crimes
