Gun Store Can't Account for Weapon Tied to Sniper Case

TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 31 -- The trail of the Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle used in the Washington, D.C., area sniper shootings ends abruptly here at Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, a sprawling waterfront firearms bazaar that was closed today as federal agents continued to comb its records for clues.

The shop's owner can't account for how the Maine-built weapon made its way from his store to a Chevrolet Caprice occupied by sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, who were arrested sleeping at a rest stop in Maryland last week. The weapon has been linked through ballistics tests to 11 of the 13 sniper shootings, as well as to slayings in Alabama and, today, Louisiana.

According to local press reports and law enforcement sources, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also have discovered that more than 300 other guns appear to have disappeared from Bull's Eye inventories without sales receipts.

Bull's Eye has been in trouble before with the ATF, which discovered a batch of 150 missing guns during a 1999 compliance audit, sources said.

The case provides a dramatic illustration of what gun-control advocates consider the loose regulation of the nation's estimated 104,000 licensed firearms dealers, which are overseen by just 600 ATF inspectors who must also oversee breweries and tobacco plants and have other responsibilities.

In 1999, the ATF documented 21,000 guns missing from dealer inventories during spot checks. In the same year, only 13 dealers had their licenses revoked.

Gun-control advocates argue that the system does little to discourage dealers from selling guns under the counter to felons or domestic abusers in order to evade federally mandated background checks.

"There are huge incentives to go around the system and very little chance of getting caught," said Kirsten Rand, with the Violence Policy Center in Washington, which favors strict restrictions on gun sales. "There is absolutely minimal oversight."

ATF officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the Bull's Eye case. But an ATF spokesman, Jim Crandall in Washington, said the agency does its best with limited resources, paying particular attention to dealers suspected of skirting the law. Regular inspections are limited to one per year per dealer -- and there are not enough agents to inspect each dealer every year.

"Of course, it's unwieldy, and the numbers don't match," Crandall said. "We try to do what we can to stretch resources, to work not just hard but smart. We try to target those dealers with a bad compliance history where we've had problems before."

In downtown Tacoma, ATF agents spent the seventh straight day reviewing records at Bull's Eye. Owner Brian Borgelt closed for the day because of the ongoing probe, hanging a sign out front that read: "We hope all our customers will understand."

Although the shop was closed, its shooting range, housed in the same converted warehouse, remained open and was busy with soldiers from local military bases. Muhammad is a former Army soldier who served at nearby Fort Lewis, Wash., and lived for many years in the Puget Sound region.

ATF spokesman Martha Tebbenkamp in Seattle said the ongoing inspection at Bull's Eye "should not suggest this businessman is guilty of anything."

Asked if it was unusual for gun stores to be unable to account for all of their firearms, she said, "I wouldn't say for us to find record discrepancies would be unique. But obviously we want accurate records. We shoot for 100 percent."

Borgelt has not responded to written requests and telephone messages from The Washington Post, but has been quoted in local newspapers as saying he is skeptical that Muhammad obtained the rifle at his store. If he did, Borgelt told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "he snuck in undetected under the radar screen. That's not what we're about here."

Gun-control advocates say the shop is clearly in violation of federal law no matter what happened to the rifle. If it was stolen or lost, federal law requires gun dealers to report it missing within 48 hours.

If it was sold to a customer, dealers are required to run a federal background check and to keep a record of the sale for 30 years. Shops cannot sell to customers such as Muhammad, who was under a permanent restraining order to stay away from his wife as of March 2000, or to illegal immigrants such Malvo, a Jamaican citizen.

"It is implausible that they would not notice missing an item worth close to $1,000," said Americans for Gun Safety spokesman Matt Bennett, referring to the Bushmaster, which is modeled on the military's M-16. "There are too many missing firearms, too many paperwork errors, too many excuses."

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that "if a gun dealer intentionally breaks the law, there ought to be prosecution." But LaPierre also accused gun-control advocates of seizing on the sniper case for political reasons.

"Here we go again: another tragedy, and lurking around the corner are these gun-ban groups who are trying to twist it to their agenda," LaPierre said.

Owners of other Tacoma area gun shops said past audits of their own stores had turned up small numbers of missing sales records. Even one or two would be a big deal, they said.

"How does 350 get lost?" said Ralph Autrey, owner of Gun & Bow, which sells 700 to 800 firearms each year. One year, Autrey said, three were missing, and a second audit lowered that number to one. "I hate even that," he said. Autrey found it hard to believe that so many weapons could be unaccounted for at Bull's Eye.

At Top Kick, a pawnshop that sells everything from chain saws to children's videos, the owner said he'd never had any weapons missing in an audit. "However, I'm sure accidents could happen," said the owner, who declined to give his name. "I don't want to put my foot in my mouth."

Eggen reported from Washington, D.C.

Richard Van Loan, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent, registers the number of a handgun at Bull's Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Wash.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5noKS5qsDInKpoamBlf3B9kGhnameXqrtuv9OoqZ5lk5a7tXnAnJqorZ6peqe70WaunpmgpLtuwMiem2asn2LAr7XPnqlmm5GosnCxxG5rmmuUZ3qigZKcZG1slW16eoCRbGRuaJOagXJ9lJxpcZpf

JoltDash

Gun Store Can't Account for Weapon Tied to Sniper Case