The Business of Guns

By David Wilson

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Foreword .................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Manufacturers ..................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Retailers ............................................................... 27 Chapter 3: Gun Shows . .......................................................... 43 Chapter 4: The Internet ......................................................... 59 Chapter 5: Stopping Illegal Sales ......................................... 73 Series Glossary of Key Terms ................................................. 88 Further Reading & Internet Resources ................................. 92 Index ......................................................................................... 94 Author’s Biography ................................................................. 96 Credits . ..................................................................................... 96 K E Y I C O N S T O L O O K F O R Words to Understand: These words, with their easy-to-understand definitions, will increase readers’ understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

It was an honor to be asked to write the foreword for the Gun Country series. Since I’m not a celebrity, and it is unlikely you have ever heard of me, I’d like to tell you a bit about my background and experience as it applies to guns. I am a security, emergency management, and business continuity consultant helping public and private sector organizations to be better prepared to withstand disasters. I help them draft plans, provide training, and conduct exercises to improve their organizations’ preparedness posture. In short, I coach organizations on how to ready their people to handle crises. My career began as a Marine infantryman, armorer, and counterintelligence specialist. I then became a police officer, serving as a SWAT officer, firearms instructor, hostage negotiator, and neighborhood team leader. I’ve worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an intelligence officer and protective security advisor. I’ve been the chief instructor at a private shooting club. Mixed in there were a few years as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. My knowledge of guns is fairly extensive. I know quite a bit about numerous makes and models of guns, including rifles, pistols, and shotguns. I’ve fired many types and styles of guns from .22 caliber pistols (very small) to 155-millimeter howitzers (so big they need to be towed by a truck). I have a great deal of experience in “use of force,” which is the legal term for the appropriate times and conditions when different types of force can be used by civilians, the military, and law enforcement. I’ve seen close-up what guns can do to a human body. But I am getting ahead of myself. I am what some would consider a late bloomer when it comes to shooting and guns. My

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shooting experience started when I was eighteen at U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Prior to that, the only guns I knew were toys and BB guns. You may have heard it is important to make a good first impression; well, the rifle ranges of Parris Island certainly made a good first impression on me. Boot camp takes about three months. The first month was filled with screaming drill instructors, summer humidity and heat, and what seemed like endless push-ups. Very disorienting and uncomfortable. As the second month of boot camp began, our company marched out to the rifle ranges and the change in atmosphere was remarkable. We began our march at the industrial Mainside part of the base and ended at the pastoral grounds of the ranges. Where Mainside was mostly paved and sandy, the ranges had huge fields of green grass. Where Mainside had quite a bit of traffic and other mechanical noise from steam plants and the like, the ranges were quiet with the sound of birds and the wind blowing through the trees punctuated by the pleasant sound of the crack of rifle fire as Marines practiced their craft. The difference was amazing. That initial experience set a high standard for the rest of my life. The training I received there was exceptional; few would argue the Marines create excellent shooters. Over the next fifteen years I would experience a wide variety of firearms as I became an expert in their operation and maintenance and learned how to employ them to inflict the least damage while accomplishing a mission or in the line of duty. I would not consider myself a “gun nut” or even an enthusiast. I don’t own very many. I don’t get emotional when I’m around them. I look at them as tools, much like a carpenter looks at a hammer. I’m comfortable around them because I know what they can and cannot do. My position on guns is that of a pragmatic advocate. The appropriate gun in the hands of a well-trained person can result

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in the pursuit of a lifelong and engaging sport. It can also be a potent solution to a desperate problem and a powerful deterrent. I believe guns alone are not dangerous. As with many controversial topics, the disagreements often arise from a lack of knowledge and experience coupled with our natural tendency to generalize and oversimplify complex problems. We are better served when we gather information from varied sources and break down the problems into manageable issues. I’m not asking you to agree with me. Based on what I know and what I’ve done, this is how I feel. I will continue to read thoughtful material and talk to people who make a conscientious effort to understand the issues. That’s one of the reasons I appreciate this series as it does a very good job exploring some of the most contentious issues such as assault weapons, the gun economy, and Second Amendment rights. Clients frequently ask me to help them address the threat of an active assailant, commonly referred to as an “active shooter.” The active shooter scenario encompasses so many of the issues surrounding guns. Mental health, gun ownership, concealed carry, and law enforcement response are all part of the conversation although some of my clients seem unaware of the connections. I wish I’d been able to refer them to the Gun Country series to fill some of their knowledge gaps. By reading this foreword and having the series in front of you, you are already ahead of the game. You are on your way to forming your own thoughtful opinion on the topic of guns and the surrounding issues. I admire the good work author David Wilson has done presenting a complicated topic in a fair and straightforward manner. I encourage you to take the time to carefully consume this series regardless of your current position on the topic. Do the activities, follow the video links, and answer the questions at the end of the chapters. Keep an open mind and turn up your critical

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thinking. Ask yourself difficult questions and then actively pursue the answers. By doing these small additional tasks, you will come away with a very good base of knowledge on a complicated subject. If you still have questions, use the information and knowledge from the Gun Country series to drive further research. If you have not already done so, consider visiting a gun show, take a marksmanship class and shoot a pistol if you never have, and talk with law enforcement to gain their perspective. You should also consider talking with emergency room doctors and nurses, teachers, and school administrators for their perspectives as well. To think is not to know. To experience is to know. Use this series as the basis for your experience.

Jeff Murray, MA ASIS Certified Protection Professional Certified Firearms Instructor

Foreword

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The gun industry in the United States is estimated to have an annual economic impact of $50 billion.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

ersatz: A low-quality reproduction, inferior substitute, counterfeit. logistics: The process of ordering and acquiring supplies. market share: A business term referring to the percentage of total available customers who choose to purchase a given brand. prevalent: Popular, widespread, extensive. tariff: An economic tax applied to imported goods by governments, meant to bolster the performance of domestic industries and manufacturers.

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Manufacturers

The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.

—A.E. van Vogt, author

America’s gun business combines two of the country’s most well-known institutions: capitalism and firearms. Unlike murky statistics on gun violence, statistics about gun sales are far more prevalent . Each year, the manufacture, distribution, sale, and resale of firearms and ammunition has an estimated economic impact of some $50 billion, providing over 300,000 Americans with work, generating $15 billion worth of wages, and providing the government with some $6 billion in taxes. Building a Better Gun The majority of gun manufacturers in the United States are not publicly held corporations with a legal duty to report manufacturing and sales information. Nevertheless, most gun companies have one thing in common: age. Many American gun manufacturers trace their history back to the 1800s. Remington

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America’s gun business combines two of the country’s most well-known institutions: capitalism and firearms.

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Arms leads the pack, since its genesis as a company dates all the way back to 1816, when company founder Eliphalet Remington II entered a shooting competition with a homemade rifle and performed so well that his tournament competitors all placed orders for a gun. Most of the major manufacturers started operations after the two world wars, suggesting that firearm market share in the United States depends heavily on getting to your customer base first.

Gun manufacturers like Eli Whitney enjoyed the patronage of George Washington.

Chapter 1: Manufacturers

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This long history of manufacturing means that the relationship between the arms industry and the American government is not new, despite the rapid growth of the gun control debate in recent decades. Gun manufacturers like Eli Whitney (better remembered for the invention of the cotton gin) and Simeon North enjoyed the patronage of George Washington, who wanted to grow an American arms industry after spending much of the American Revolution needing to purchase foreign weapons to meet the war’s logistics needs. The government nurtured the growth of gun manufacturing not only through contracts and start-up funding, but also through tariffs against foreign competition and even patent laws meant to safeguard manufacturers from having their designs stolen by rivals. By the 1850s, not only was the United States a major world producer of firearms, but manufacturers had introduced a revolutionary system of interchangeable parts so that any gun could provide spare parts for another. Smith & Wesson popularized not only the revolver handgun (despite having been founded five years prior to the invention of the revolver itself), but also the metal cartridge ammunition that would quickly replace the ball ammunition used in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. While Smith & Wesson enjoyed almost 150 years in the limelight of American gun manufacturing, its position at the top has been overtaken just recently—and by a much younger company.

Sturm, Ruger & Co.: The Current Sales Leader

Like many gun manufacturers, the history of Sturm, Ruger & Co. begins in a time of war. Cofounder William Ruger acquired a “Nambu” pistol used by the Japanese in World War II and successfully built a working duplicate of the gun. His partner, Alexander Sturm, fronted the $50,000 that the company needed

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Like many gun manufacturers, the history of Sturm, Ruger & Co. begins in a time of war.

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to get off the ground. Just two years later, Sturm passed away, but demand for these guns proved rich enough to launch a business that retained the name of its founding partner. By 1969, business was so strong that the company went public, and sales kept going so well that the company earned a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1990. From 1949 to 2004, Sturm, Ruger & Co. claimed to have manufactured 20 million firearms, with 30 different product lines of rifles, shotguns, handguns, and revolvers, and some 400 different individual product offerings. Almost every statistic about gun manufacturing places Sturm, Ruger & Co. at or near the top. The 2017 Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report put the company quite literally number one, accounting for 781,704 pistols, 661,155 rifles, and 172,104 revolvers. Its strong sales reflect both mistakes and success stories. When ArmaLite manufacturer looked to sell the design of its AR-15, by far the most popular semiautomatic rifle in the United States today, it approached Sturm, Ruger & Co. as the first choice. The latter’s executives declined the opportunity to purchase the rights to manufacture the gun, however. As a result, ArmaLite sold the AR-15 design to rival Colt, which not only sold millions of these guns but also sold a military-grade design to the United States Army as the M16 rifle. Nevertheless, Ruger’s own AR- 556 is one of the most popular semiautomatic rifles on the market, while its 10/22 .22LR is the world’s most popular rimfire rifle (meaning a rifle whose firing pin hits a bullet on the side, making ammunition and guns lighter), having sold over six million units. The motto of Sturm, Ruger & Co. is “Arms makers for responsible citizens.” Its guiding philosophy as a company is self- armament for Americans, with the company advocating hard for gun freedoms. During the 2016 presidential election, Sturm, Ruger & Co. contributed two dollars from every gun sale between August and Election Day to the National Rifle Association (NRA), providing the lobbying kingpin with as much as $5 million in cash.

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Sturm, Ruger & Co. isn’t limited to producing firearms.

The Gun Business Isn’t Just Guns

While Sturm, Ruger & Co. manufactures more guns than any competitor, it isn’t limited to producing firearms. It also has a division for metal casting, meaning creating the design of metal objects, although that accounts for just 1 percent of company revenue. In the 1990s, the company’s casting division produced titanium driver heads for golf companies like Callaway, including the famous Big Bertha drivers. Sturm, Ruger would produce $150 million worth of gold club heads for Callaway, although it failed to make a permanent dent in the golf market and ended the manufacture of clubs in 2005.

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Smith & Wesson: A Company Built on the Revolver Horace Smith and D.B. Wesson partnered together in 1852 in the hopes of manufacturing a gun capable of firing a self-contained cartridge, at a time when many guns required that the shooter first add powder, then a ball bullet, and then more powder just to get a shot off. This laborious process, which might take thirty seconds to a minute, necessitated the invention and popularization of cartridge bullets, but in a time when much gun manufacturing was local, and the cost of a new design was prohibitive, innovation required significant effort. Smith & Wesson achieved this effort after two years, building and patenting the market’s first fully contained cartridge gun in 1854, naming it the “Volcanic pistol” and claiming that its ability to fire shots as rapidly as the user could operate its lever resembled the force of a volcano’s destruction. They renamed their company Volcanic Repeating Arms, though this name lasted just one year before the company was sold and reorganized as the New Haven Arms Company. Smith and Wesson themselves spun off a new company, naming it after themselves, and the name has remained for the past 150 years. The partners hit it big with the Model 1 revolver, a .22 caliber gun holding seven black-powder cartridges, developed in 1857. The gun cost $12 (about two weeks’ salary for an average American) and a box of 100 cartridges cost 75 cents. By the start of the Civil War, just four years later, demand skyrocketed for their guns: the first design of the revolver sold 12,000 copies, but the second design sold ten times as many. Smith & Wesson could not keep up with demand from soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and the company built a new manufacturing facility to increase output. It also struggled to keep up with counterfeits. At the time, so many manufacturers produced mimic designs

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Horace Smith and D.B. Wesson partnered together in 1852.

Chapter 1: Manufacturers

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of their revolvers that lawsuits became common, and the government forced competing gun manufacturers to stamp “Manufactured for Smith & Wesson” on their ersatz revolvers as a way to permanently tie the brand to the gun. Their patent for a cartridge-loading revolver so constrained other American gun manufacturers that the federal government criticized the company for preventing the development of new firearm technology. With the end of the Civil War, demand for Smith & Wesson revolvers dropped profoundly. The company changed its marketing tactics, appealing to an exotic ideal of the American

Wesson’s large, heavy revolvers were replaced by smaller pistols.

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Wild West, where violence lurked behind every corner, and only the biggest gun available could provide safety. Smith & Wesson began building much larger revolvers, using .38 and .44 caliber ammunition. The company’s biggest publicity success came when it was revealed that the famous outlaw Wild Bill Hickok had been shot with a Smith & Wesson revolver. As the company grew larger throughout the late 19th century, it began to sell to a wider range of customers, including the army, law enforcement, and even gangsters. Its sales, like those of its competitors, picked up anew with both world wars. By the 1980s, however, Smith & Wesson’s large, heavy revolvers had lost popularity among the military and law enforcement, replaced by smaller, lighter, and faster-to- load semiautomatic pistols manufactured by domestic and international rivals. In 2017, Smith & Wesson changed the name of its parent company to American Outdoor Brands Corporation in an attempt to reduce the emphasis on firearms sales, bringing together several umbrella organizations based around hunting and shooting accessories. This move belies its continued success as a firearm manufacturer, putting nearly 1.5 million guns onto the market each year. Of the top ten American gun manufacturers, Smith & Wesson is one of just two (along with Sturm, Ruger & Co.) that manufacture revolvers—none of the other companies choose to do so. Smith & Wesson accounts for a full 31 percent of all revolvers produced in the United States today. However, in 2017 sales plummeted for this titan, dropping nearly 40 percent and forcing the company to lay off nearly a quarter of its manufacturing workforce. Like many other gun companies, Smith & Wesson has struggled with its public image, especially as mass shooters have purchased and used its products.

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This video provides a look at the Smith & Wesson Model 629 revolver.

Remington Arms: Two Centuries of Making Guns

Remington Arms calls itself America’s oldest gunmaker. And while some competitors did mass-produce firearms before it did, none has managed to survive through two centuries like it has. Founder Eliphalet Remington was something of a manufacturing whiz kid. His father had been a blacksmith in central New York. Remington worked alongside his father, and at the age of just 23 he built his own rifle, purchasing the trigger from a gunsmith and manufacturing the rest with his own hands. Remington earned a great deal of respect for his creation, especially after using it to take second place in a shooting competition in Utica: he entered a contestant and left a businessman, taking several orders “before he had left the field.” At the time, handmade guns were common but usually very low in quality. In 1828, Remington’s skill allowed him to set up company headquarters in Ilion (still used today as a manufacturing plant), where the completion of

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the Erie Canal allowed him to sell his products to downstate New York and neighboring states. Like many other competitors, Remington’s sales soared during the Civil War, allowing the company to go public in 1865 and during both world wars. Remington Arms developed the first hammerless repeating shotgun (a shotgun that can load a new cartridge without needing to pull the hammer back) and the first slide-action repeating rifle (a gun that the shooter pumps to load a new round). During World War I, Remington Arms won the lucrative contract to produce guns not just for the U.S. Army but also for Russia. However, Russia suffered defeat after defeat, eventually leaving the country without the money to pay Remington for the guns it had purchased. With Russia facing bankruptcy due to voided contracts, the U.S. government had to step in to purchase the spare guns so that the company could survive. Remington continued a brisk business with the outbreak of World War II, selling guns as well as ammunition, and earning five times as much profit in 1940 as it did in 1939. The U.S. government suggested the company expand to meet the military’s needs, and Remington built five newmanufacturing facilities, allowing it to supply a variety of weapons, including 2,000 high-powered rifles for the U.S. Navy that were never actually used in the war. Following the war, Remington also began to manufacture other outdoor equipment to diversify its offerings, including clothing and even surveillance systems, yet its core business remains the sale of guns and ammunition. A new factory in Alabama that produces Remington’s products has been said to have raised the state economy by nearly $100 million. Today, Remington is still a primary manufacturer of weapons and ammunition for military forces in different countries, including the United States. But like its competitors, its recent history has been one of struggle. The company was sold in 2007 to a private equity firm to balance its books, while it temporarily

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left the handgun market at about the same time due to a lack of funds. Also like its competitors, the company has come under scrutiny because its products have appeared in the hands of mass shooters. The 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children dead involved a Remington Bushmaster, one of the most common variants of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Family members of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting sued Remington in 2014 for wrongful marketing that inspired the shooter. After a series of appeals, the courts in November 2019 allowed the family members to go ahead with their lawsuit. During the lengthy appeals process, many of Remington’s investors decided that they no longer wanted to be associated with the company and left it without access to capital. In 2018, the company announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to turn around the struggling business; even so, Remington sold nearly 1.5 million firearms that same year, earning over $600 million in sales.

In 2018, Remington earned over $600 million in sales.

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Text-Dependent Questions

1. What is the earliest example of the U.S. government providing patronage for the gun manufacturing industry? 2. What was the legal solution reached for competitors who manufactured revolvers based on Smith & Wesson’s design? 3. Why did Remington Arms manage to sell so many arms at the earliest stage of its history?

Research Projects

1. Prior to modern advertising, such as TV commercials, manufacturers often promoted their goods in catalogs, such as the popular Sears-Roebuck catalog. Research gun advertising in 19th-century catalogs, and write a report. How did gun manufacturers portray their products? Who was the primary target? What strategies did they use to emphasize the value of their products? 2. Gun manufacturers are hardly the only companies to turn a profit during a time of major conflict. Research any of the major American wars and the role of businesses in that war, and then write a report. What are some industries that benefit broadly in times of war? What are specific companies that have a close tie to the military? Do any industries struggle during times of war? 3. One of the major struggles of the American colonists during the Revolutionary War was access to supplies, including arms and ammunition. Research the logistics of the Revolutionary army, and write a report. How did the army meet the needs of the war? What burdens did the individual soldiers themselves have to deal with?

Chapter 1: Manufacturers

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The United States has approximately 65,000 gun sellers.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

bump stock: Attachment that allows a semiautomatic rifle to fire more rapidly. mandatory: Required by law. merchandise: Goods for sale. notoriety: Public perception, usually negative. wholesale: The purchase of goods in large quantities, almost always for individual resale to customers.

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Retailers

One interesting statistic about our neighbor to the south, Mexico, is that the entire nation has just one single gun store. This store is located on a military base in Mexico City, guarded by a huge wall, requiring customers to pass six separate background checks before they can step through the door. While Mexico’s constitution also guarantees the right to bear arms, its government has strict laws on the sale of guns. The United States, by contrast, has some 65,000 gun sellers, meaning that there are five times more gun stores in the nation than McDonald’s restaurants.

Big-Box Stores: Big on Guns, but Scaling Back

By many different metrics, no company in the world today can match Walmart’s size. The retailer has over 10,000 worldwide stores and half a trillion dollars in revenue. It was also one of the world’s most prolific gun sellers until September 2019 when the company announced that it would stop selling ammunition for handguns and short-barrel rifles, which can also be used

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Walmart has been criticized for the sale of firearms.

for assault-style weapons. “It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a memo to employees after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. Walmart has been criticized for a laundry list of misdeeds, ranging from forcing employees to work unpaid overtime to driving smaller competitors out of business, and in recent years the sale of firearms in the stores has not escaped national attention. In 2015, Walmart announced that it would stop the sale of AR-15 rifles, would only sell handguns in the state of Alaska, and would not sell weapons to any person below the age of 21. A Walmart corporate statement said that the company had “taken an opportunity to review our policy on firearm sales . . . our heritage as a company has always been in serving sportsmen

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and hunters, and we will continue to do so in a responsible way.” Even with limitations in place, the universality of Walmart (the average American lives within just four miles of any given store) means that guns are never far away. Dick’s Sporting Goods has a more limited reach than Walmart, but with 850 stores and a presence on the Fortune 500 listing, it is the next-largest big-box store that sells firearms and ammunition. Dick’s, like Walmart, has been under pressure in recent years to limit its gun sales, primarily as a result of mass shootings. The 2018 Parkland, Florida, mass shooting left 17 people dead, and the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had purchased a weapon (although not the weapon used in the attack) at Dick’s. In response, Dick’s chief executive officer, Edward W. Stack, announced in October 2019 that the store had destroyed over $5 million worth of military-style weapons and was reviewing whether to continue selling guns. A 2019 test of the removal of guns from ten stores saw overall sales rise, leading to further removal from some 125 stores, replacing firearms with other merchandise , like ski gear. Dick’s business decision, the company said, was partially a reflection of public opinion but also influenced by the low margin the company enjoys on gun sales and the declining customer base. Dick’s, like Walmart, had previously removed AR-15 semiautomatic rifles and does not sell to customers below the age of 21. While the company sells handgun ammunition, it does not sell handguns themselves. Dick’s CEO, Edward Stack, famously broke a longstanding corporate tie with the National Rifle Association in 2018, advocating that politicians pass gun control reform laws to ban assault weapons, bump stocks , and high-capacity magazines. “We support and respect the Second Amendment,” Stack wrote in a corporate announcement “but we have to solve the problem that’s in front of us.”

Chapter 2: Retailers

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Dick’s Sporting Goods is the second-largest big-box store that sells firearms and ammunition.

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Bass Pro Shops is one of the United States’ largest privately held companies. Like Dick’s, it sells outdoor equipment in 200 stores throughout the country. In 2017, the company acquired Cabela’s, a major competitor, giving it a much larger range in new markets. Bass Pro Shops, unlike Dick’s, sells handguns as well as semiautomatic rifles. Unlike both Walmart and Dick’s, Bass did not restrict sales of semiautomatic rifles in the aftermath of major mass shootings, nor did the company raise the minimum age of purchase from 18 to 21 (except in states where this is already the law for specific weapons). This makes them the last big-box store to sell semiautomatics and the only one to sell high-capacity magazines in states where these magazines are legal. Small Gun Stores: Where the Criminals Go Most gun-crime experts agree that the majority of guns used to break the law, from simple robberies to murder, come primarily from smaller gun stores. While the big-box stores earn the most glaring public condemnation for selling handguns, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines, it is the much smaller facilities that supply guns directly or indirectly to criminals. Reports by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) suggest that just 1 percent of gun stores nationwide account for over half of all the firearms used in crime. Some 120 individual gun stores provided over 50,000 guns traced to crimes in the late 1990s, each of which accounted for at least 200 individual traces. What’s more, only 24 of these stores have shut down since the late 1990s, and some of them that shut down reopened, some even with the same ownership. Only a quarter of these specific stores have been audited by the ATF, while 58 of them have had zero dealer prosecutions after being caught making illegal sales.

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The majority of guns used to break the law come primarily from smaller gun stores.

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Topping the list of notorious gun sellers is Chuck’s Guns in Riverdale, Illinois. Some 1,500 guns found at Chicago-area crime scenes were traced to sales from the shop between 2009 and 2013, making it responsible for more gun crime than the next two dealers in the United States combined. One Chuck’s gun was even involved in the death of a Chicago police officer. By contrast, the average number of gun crimes linked to dealerships in the Riverdale area during the same time period is just three. Chuck’s Guns is a case study in geography: it is just

Chuck’s Guns is just outside Chicago itself, meaning that the city’s strict gun control laws do not apply.

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outside Chicago itself, meaning that the city’s strict gun control laws do not apply, while it is near enough to the violent South Side of the city that street gangs can get middlemen, called “straw purchasers,” to purchase handguns and assault rifles on their behalf. Despite the extreme notoriety of Chuck’s and the staggering number of crimes linked to its weapons, the ownership of the company has not been found guilty of illegal transactions. Undercover detectives frequent the store to make certain that the sellers follow the appropriate laws, like demanding a mandatory state identification card and a criminal background check, yet no one from the store has ever faced criminal charges. An article in the Economist on Chuck’s proliferation of weapons later used in crime ended its report by noting that, perhaps appropriately, Chuck’s is located next door to a funeral parlor. Most stores, of course, are not direct sources for gang violence, nor do they traffic guns or otherwise break the law. Indeed, the five-year span from 2014 to 2019 not only saw the gun crime rate drop by over 3 percent, but it also saw gun industry growth of about 4 percent. However, data about smaller gun businesses remain hard to come by, especially as regarding the sale of weapons linked to criminals. One reason for this lack of change is that the ATF is legally prohibited from publishing and naming these specific dealers, a consequence of the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, signed by former president George W. Bush with the intention of keeping American gun businesses secure from bad publicity and what was perceived as an overzealous government agency. This limits the national ability to study gun statistics (including gun crime) from individual stores. It has also made it difficult for the ATF itself to bring criminal prosecutions against stores that do break the law.

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Many ATF officials criticize the neglect in prosecuting those commonly known to be corrupt. During the Bush administration, there was a 25 percent drop in the prosecutions of gun stores. This lack of traction continued after Bush left office: in 2011, during the (pro-gun control) Obama administration, just 62 percent of federally licensed gun dealers were found to be in compliance with gun laws, yet only 71 of the thousands of national gun dealerships saw their licenses revoked or denied renewal. Federal Licensing and Individual Dealers: Sporadic Oversight and Loopholes Just as no American can purchase a beer keg and sell individual cups on their front lawn without a liquor license, so too do firearm retailers require a license in order to sell arms. But these licenses are only applicable to Americans who sell more than four firearms over a 12-month span, a law that not only provides

See how the ATF launched a campaign to stop straw purchases of guns.

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a great deal of leeway for loopholes (e.g., purchases in cash that are not tracked or recorded) but also has very little oversight in and of itself. The ATF maintains 11 different licenses for firearms buyers and sellers. While the majority of gun sellers use Type 1 federal licenses, allowing them to sell any legal firearm and accessory, a further 8,000 have a Type 2 license, applicable to pawnbrokers who are authorized to purchase firearms from a seller and then turn them around and sell them to any available customer. Other license categories cover firearmmanufacturers, relic collectors, and importer/exporters. The Type 1 license is the most desired of all these federal requirements, since it allows sellers to purchase an unlimited quantity of guns themselves (including purchasing guns through the mail, which is not inherently legal for an ordinary American), without needing any type of background check for themselves or their business, and to obtain guns at wholesale prices, allowing them to create a profit margin for their own business. Prior to 1993, the low cost of a federal license (just $10 per year) had led to over a quarter of a million licenses throughout the country, although about half of these individuals conducted no business at all, instead using the license to purchase and sell guns in violation of state or local law, avoiding taxes on the exchange. With the passage of the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (commonly known as the Brady Bill), this fee rose to $200 for the first three years and $90 for additional three-year periods, while requiring licensees to inform local law enforcement of the decision to apply for and hold a license. The next year, 1994, saw the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, marking the first time in American history when dealers were mandated to perform background checks on gun buyers, and the first time in American history when dealers

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1994 saw the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

had to submit photographs and fingerprints to get a license to sell guns. These two acts caused the number of licensed American gun dealers to plummet. Gun dealers with federal licenses should, in theory, be subject to oversight and government compliance. For example, federal law requires a dealer to report the theft of any gun within 48 hours. In practice, however, understaffing and underfunding of the ATF allow many to slip through the cracks. The ATF may only conduct a single unannounced inspection per dealer per year. Furthermore, a firearm law violation is not necessarily a felony (as selling a gun without a license often is), but rather a

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misdemeanor, punishable by a fine rather than prison time. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report in 2004 on federal firearm licenses, noting that the program for inspection was “not fully effective for ensuring that [licensed sellers] comply with federal firearms laws because inspections are infrequent and of inconsistent quality, and follow-up inspections and adverse actions have been sporadic.” On average, dealers receive an inspection once a decade. Over half of all federally licensed firearm dealers have not been inspected within the past five years. These inspections, furthermore, rarely lead to prosecutions. A 2010 Washington Post report found that prosecutions of corrupt licensed dealers amount to as few as 15 per year. “I think the public doesn’t understand how small ATF is,” said former agent David Chipman. “ATF has 2,600 special agents . . . I think the Capitol Police Department here in [Washington, D.C.] has 2,200 sworn officers.”

Buying and Selling Antique Guns

One major gun market in the United States focuses on historical firearms. The laws on purchasing antique firearms are far more lenient than those for modern-era guns. Any firearmmade prior to 1898 is classified as an antique and not subject to federal gun law jurisdiction, meaning that there is usually no need to conduct background checks on the buying and selling of these guns. One exception is if the antique is itself a machine gun, such as the 1895 Colt “Potato digger,” so named because its stock resembles a shovel.

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One major gun market in the United States focuses on historical firearms.

Lack of a federal firearm license does not mean that one may not sell a gun, however. There is no federal law that requires a gun dealer to make a sale on commercial property, and a 1998 study revealed that 56 percent of all dealers operated out of their homes. What’s more, nearly a quarter operated out of business offices that were not primarily associated with the sale of arms, ammunition, or sporting goods. Furthermore, the requirements for gun sales from unlicensed dealers are often much less stringent than those for sales from licensed dealers. Many states (including, interestingly, the first four states in alphabetical order: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, and Arkansas) do not require a background check whenever the seller is not a licensed dealer.

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A “private seller” is one who is “not engaged in the business,” defined as a person who “makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.” A 1999 ATF report noted that this ambiguous definition of a private seller tends to complicate the prosecution of illegal sales by “unlicensed dealers masquerading as collectors or hobbyists but who are really trafficking firearms to felons or other prohibited persons.”

Many states do not require a background check whenever the seller is not a licensed dealer.

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Text-Dependent Questions

1. What is the only state where Walmart sells handguns? 2. What factors make it far more likely that a gun sold at Chuck’s Guns in Riverdale, Illinois, will be used in a crime? 3. What is the difference between a Type 1 and Type 2 federal firearm license?

Research Projects

1. Find an advertisement for one of the three big-box stores in this chapter in your local newspaper. (The Sunday editions will likely have their advertisements.) Do they advertise gun sales? If so, what guns do they advertise, and how do they market them to readers? If not, how do they market the sporting/outdoor equipment that they sell in their stores alongside guns? 2. Research the federal or state licenses required for buying and selling alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana, and write a report. How do these laws compare to the licenses for purchasing firearms? Is it easier to purchase a controlled substance than a firearm in the state where you live?

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Gun shows are often decried by gun control politicians as the ultimate black market for guns, a place where both criminals and mass shooters have access to deadly weapons with a bare minimum of oversight.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

dichotomy: The divide between two very opposite or different concepts, things, or persons. facilitate: To enable, drive, or make easier. recidivists: Criminals released from incarceration who later commit another major crime. scrutinized: Heavily studied, usually with an eye toward misdeeds or errors.

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Gun Shows

The United States has an average of about 15 gun shows per day, each of which attracts countless thousands of Americans to buy, trade, and sell firearms. What’s more, there are far more public markets and swap meets across the country where guns and ammunition change hands as readily as video games or furniture. Gun shows are often decried by gun control politicians as the ultimate black market for guns, a place where both criminals and mass shooters have access to deadly weapons with a bare minimum of oversight—if indeed you can find any oversight at all. By contrast, they are just as often promoted by gun freedom politicians as proof that exceptions do not prove the rule, as the overwhelming majority of weapons purchased, sold, and exchanged at gun shows never end up associated with criminal activity or mass shootings.

The Politics of Gun Shows: “Two Sets of Rules”

Throughout most of American history, gun shows (and other swap meets) escaped public attention during the gun-control

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The United States has an average of about 15 gun shows per day.

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debate. But in the late 20th century, these shows become more and more scrutinized , not only by average Americans but also by law enforcement. Retired ATF agent David Chipman recalls that, prior to the 1980s, most private sellers used newspapers to advertise their firearms:

Gun shows, which were primarily just flea markets, became more popular because they allowed private sellers of guns to go to locations where buyers of guns would be. What you had was this interesting circumstance where . . . a licensed gun dealer set up next to a private party. Both would be selling the same gun, but they would have to abide by different laws.

This dichotomy , with two sets of rules for the sale of any given gun, became known over time as the “gun show loophole.” This loophole, in turn, attracted controversy, and it attracted politicians. The passage of gun control bills like the Brady Bill, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, made scrutiny of gun shows more prevalent. Among other things, the Brady Bill made it illegal to sell newly manufactured assault weapons or newly manufactured magazines with more than ten rounds. In 1998, the Clinton administration made efforts to tighten the gun show loophole (first introducing the term itself) further. Clinton, worried about both illegal purchases and firearm traffickers, ordered the secretary of the treasury and the attorney general to develop recommendations for addressing the gun show loophole. He hoped to mandate that gun show vendors have access to the same customer information (i.e., identification and background checks) that federally licensed gun dealers collect. These recommendations, however, never made it into his administration’s policy. What’s more, many politicians and

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In 1998, the Clinton administration made efforts to tighten the gun show loophole.

advocacy groups began criticizing the persecution of the gun show loophole. Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California at Davis, wrote that “there is no such loophole in federal law . . . the fundamental flaw in the gun show loophole proposal is its failure to address the great majority of private-party sales, which occur at other locations . . . where any non-prohibited person can list firearms for sale and buyers can search for private-party sellers.” Wintemute also called the gun shows in Arizona and Texas, states with minimal gun control laws, “a gunrunner’s paradise.” Dave Kopel, a former attorney for the NRA and current law professor at the University of Denver, took another angle on the investigations into gun shows in 2000, stating that gun show regulation was

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The gun show loophole continued to be a political issue throughout George W. Bush’s presidency.

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“the first step towards abolishing all privacy regarding firearms and implementing universal gun registration.” The gun show loophole continued to be a political issue throughout George W. Bush’s presidency. In the 2000 presidential debate against Democratic candidate Al Gore, Bush claimed that he supported instant background checks at gun shows. Four years later, in the 2004 presidential debate against Democratic candidate John Kerry, Bush echoed his support for further background checks but claimed that his attempt to extend the assault weapons ban “was never going to move.” In 2009, the Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2009 was introduced in Congress, proposing that gun shows establish background check procedures; the bill did not make it to the floor of either chamber of Congress for a vote. In 2015, Democratic president Barack Obama used an executive order to expand background checks at gun shows, after the (Republican-led) Congress refused to pass any gun control legislation. Republican president Donald Trump had less-concrete positions on expanding background checks to end the loophole, supporting background checks in 2013 (prior to his political career), but then giving an interview with Ammoland magazine in 2015 opposing background checks. In the aftermath of the 2019 El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, which occurred within 24 hours of each other, Trump finally declared that his administration would “fully back” stronger background checks with “tremendous support.” As soon as President Trump declared his new intention to push background checks, however, the NRA (which had donated $30 million to his election campaign, making them his single largest donor) said that additional background checks would not have stopped the El Paso and Dayton shootings, and a subsequent phone call between Trump and NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre resulted in the NRA’s explicit refusal to give ground on universal background checks. Trump then backed off his stated position.

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