More Straw Purchases at Badger

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on the latest allegations concerning the beleaguered Badger Guns. This is the gun shop whose owner, Adam Allan, took the offensive last week by posting a sign warning his customers that the cops were watching and would probably stop them as they left the store.

The handgun used to shoot a Milwaukee police officer last week has been traced to Badger Guns, making that store the sole supplier of all the guns used to wound six officers in two years, police said.

Nine of 10 straw buyers prosecuted since 2007 made their purchases at Badger Guns or its predecessor, Badger Outdoors, a review of court records shows. In the past five years, the store accounted for 21 of the 27 cases prosecuted.

Three miles away there's another gun shop, The Shooters Shop in West Allis. It accounted for 3% of the crime guns recovered by Milwaukee from 2006 to Sept. 1 of this year. Badger accounted for 30% of crime guns during the same time. Of course volume has something to do with it.

The Shooters Shop's owner, Kevin Nugent, disputed Badger's argument that its high numbers are explained by its sales volume and proximity to Milwaukee. Nugent said he prevents straw purchases by closely questioning everyone who comes in his business.

"It's called a conscience," Nugent said. "When you are selling a firearm, you have to take personal responsibility to know that you are selling an instrument that could be used for harmful purposes."

Now there's a quote for you, "It's called conscience." When the crime guns traced to a particular store are as many as this, one has to question the "conscience" of the owner. Nugent also said, "you have to take personal responsibility." I like this guy.

What's your opinion? Does the mounting evidence against Badger make you wonder about their practices? What can be done to prevent a gun shop owner from having the shoulder-shrugging, it's-not-my-fault attitude about straw purchases? Why do lawful gun owners get defensive about guys like this? If I were a clean and honest gun owner, I wouldn't touch a place like Badger guns with a ten foot pole. How about you?

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Badger Gun Shop in Milwaukee

The owner of Badger Gun Shop is in the news again. This time because he's taken an unusual approach to what he feels is police harassment. Eugene Kane wrote an opinion article on this for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

It looks like Adam Allan wants to be Milwaukee's new civil rights leader.

Seems like a strange role for a gun dealer, but Allan - the owner of Badger Guns in West Milwaukee - apparently wants to fight against injustice on behalf of his black customers.

So much so, he put up this sign outside his shop last week:

"Racist Milwaukee Police Department is Pulling Over African-Americans Leaving this Store. Sorry for the Inconvenience."

He has since removed the sign after saying he made his point.

Mr. Kane's opening remarks are entirely facetious, as he makes clear in closing.

I think Allan was way off base attempting to gain support from African-Americans by criticizing police officers with his sign. There has been so much despair and sorrow in the local black community as a result of illegal handguns - some of which may have come from Badger Guns - I doubt many would object to any police attempts to keep these instruments of death off the streets.

As long as laws are followed, black people should be able to buy guns just like anyone else. But clearly Badger Guns isn't holding up its end of the bargain, and that means some people end up paying the price more than others.

I noticed that Eugene Kane says "may have come from Badger Guns," but goes on to say Badger is not "holding up its end of the bargain." I think he was being generous in the first remark and dead-on accurate in the second. The reason I say that is because Badger Guns is famous. Everyone knows them.

“In 1998, Badger had the most crime guns traced to it among all gun dealers in the United States and then fell from the top spot, only to regain the spot last year. Badger has been criticized for selling cheap handguns, which were bought by "straw buyers" with clean records and then passed on to gang members. In a 1999 sweep, the majority of straw buyers bought the guns legally at Badger.”

So I suppose we've got the same old situation here that we've been talking about lately, an obviously dirty gun dealer skirting the law and enjoying support from gun owners who, if they had any sense would shun the guy. Then, as if that's not enough, he puts up a sign challenging the local cops to stop bothering his customers. These customers include gang members, criminals who Mr. Allan knows very well are breaking the law by organizing straw purchases in his store.

I call that action, putting the sign up, the Dick Cheney method of "the best defense is a good offense."

What's your opinion? Are the numerous guns traced back to Badger the unavoidable result of his high volume of sales? That's what people said about Eric Thompson.

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