Moore upset at ignored watchdog efforts

July 3, 2010

A Wisconsin congresswoman is demanding federal watchdogs get tougher on gun stores that sell a high number of guns used in crimes, citing a dealer in West Milwaukee that has sold firearms used to shoot six police officers in Milwaukee in less than two years.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to explain why a recommendation to revoke the license of Badger Outdoors in West Milwaukee was never pursued - as reported by the Journal Sentinel earlier this year.

In a letter responding to Moore, the ATF said it "diligently reviewed" the findings of the Journal Sentinel article, but said its hands are partially tied by Congress when it comes to examining hidden gun store ownership.

Federal law allows ATF only to investigate the person applying for a gun license, but not the people who may be secretly behind the operation. That is different from other licenses, such as alcohol wholesalers, where the same agency can delve deeply into secret owners by combing business records.

"Quite often proof of hidden ownership can be found in business records that are not the type of records ATF has authority to demand access to under its compliance inspection authority," W. Larry Ford, assistant director of the ATF's public and governmental affairs, wrote in a letter to Moore, who recently released the letter to the newspaper.

At Badger Outdoors, the newspaper reported federal records show the license recommended for revocation was relinquished voluntarily, the players inside the operation took on new roles and a new license was issued to the son of a previous owner, creating what an ATF official called a "clean slate." The store remains open, operating as Badger Guns.

In his response to Moore, Ford also noted the ATF has just 590 investigators to inspect 116,613 gun license holders nationwide. There are 10 people to inspect 2,726 license holders in Wisconsin. ATF inspects about one in 10 license holders a year, he said.

Moore said the ATF needs more staff and regulatory authority.

"They are overworked, understaffed and don't have proper authority," she said. "It is important to revamp their authority, their investigative powers, their ability to intervene earlier. And they need subpoena power."

Moore recently sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking if the ATF is using a regulatory tool added to its arsenal 10 years ago, the "demand letter." The letters allow the agency to target potentially law-breaking gun dealers by requiring them to file additional paperwork.

"We are tying to bring attention to the attorney general about additional tools that they have at their disposal," Moore said.

The ATF started issuing "demand letters" in February 2000. They were sent to dealers that didn't cooperate in tracing crime guns or have been found to sell a high number of crime guns.

The letters require gun dealers to send ATF sales records that stores do not typically have to submit. But use of ATF demand letters later dropped off sharply, according to a 2004 Department of Justice audit that was highly critical of the ATF's regulation of gun stores.

Moore asked Holder if ATF is still sending the letters and if so how many were issued in the past five years.

A Department of Justice official said Moore's letter was being reviewed and declined further comment.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 500 city leaders around the country, called on Congress and the president in January to make a series of gun control reforms. They include ensuring ATF is using its demand letter authority. The group also suggests expanding the demand letter program by sending them to stores that often sell to straw buyers - people with clean records who buy for felons.

"It's a targeted law enforcement tool that allows ATF to keep better tabs on dealers that may be problematic, without burdening the vast majority of gun dealers," said Arkadi Gerney, special adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leader in the mayor's group.

Andrew Molchan, director of the Professional Gun Retailers Association, said the ATF was overzealous in its use of demand letters in the late months of the Clinton administration, targeting stores just because they were near high-crime areas.

Used properly, Molchan said the letters could be effective.

"The concept is solid, as long as it is not abused," he said. "There are bad gun dealers, not many, but there are gun dealers who are basically crooks  . . .&enspATF has a right to look at these things and if they think there are problems, they have both a right and duty to track it down."

Building will

In Milwaukee, officials have looked closely at Badger Guns and its predecessor Badger Outdoors, which sold the guns used to wound six of seven officers shot in the past two years. The AK-47 used to wound a Milwaukee police officer recently appears to have been sold by a different dealer, officials said.

Milwaukee police launched an ongoing undercover investigation that revealed felons regularly frequent Badger Guns and use the range. Officers have continued to stop felons leaving the store in recent months and found that felons were taking target practice on the store's range.

Badger Guns and Badger Outdoors have been the top sellers of crime guns recovered by Milwaukee police for at least the past decade, according to records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

Badger Outdoors was the top seller of crime guns not just in Milwaukee but the nation in 2005 with 537 such guns, according to ATF records.

The newspaper also reported that even when the ATF revokes a gun dealer's license, it can take years to close the operation because of special appeal rights granted by Congress to gun dealers.

The agency revoked the license of Shawano Gun and Loan in 2007, but the case is tied up in federal court where an appeal could grind on for years. The Shawano store continues to sell guns - thousands of them each year - with the ATF's blessing.

Congress has also passed a law that hides information from the public about guns used in crimes and the stores that sell them. President Barack Obama promised to get rid of the law. Instead, he embraced most of the law and added even more rules that could make it harder for law enforcement to crack down on dealers and stores selling guns to criminals.

Moore said, in reference to the case of the Shawano store, Badger Outdoors and Badger Guns highlight the need for Congress to act, but she said any changes will be difficult given the sharp lines around the gun issue.

"There is a real small pool of actors that are selling crime guns," she said. "I think we have to build the political will  . . .  We need to have to thread the needle here. We may have to do this piecemeal."