Score Another One for Shawano

Missing paperwork seems to be the main accusation, missing sales receipts.

That's a bit more serious than misspellings on the applications or failing to cross the "t" or dot the "i." That's what I keep hearing from the pro-gun crowd.

We've discussed them a few times, trying to follow the roller coaster ride. Here's the last time.

If I were a gun owner I swear I'd be the first one calling for their closure. How can legitimate gun owners expect to be respected as such when they support miscreants like these?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The ATF Gets Tough on Shawano

As we've discussed before, The Shawano Gun Shop is one of the obvious offenders. Finally the ATF is stepping up to the plate.

More on Shawano Guns and Loan

JSOnline has another report on one of the shadiest gun shops around.

A judge has ruled that a Shawano gun dealer should lose its license for repeatedly failing to keep accurate records and for making suspected straw gun sales, supporting the action a federal agency took nearly three years ago.

Despite the ruling from U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Green Bay this week, Shawano Gun and Loan continues to sell guns - and might be able to do so for months or even years depending on a possible appeal.

Griesbach issued an order that supported the revocation issued by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in October 2007.

The ATF took the rare step of revoking the Shawano store's license after repeatedly warning the owner about missing records and other violations.

The most amazing thing, as we saw so clearly in the comments the last time we discussed this story, is the strong support among gun owners. I really find it amazing that they, who continually claim to be responsible and law abiding, do not raise their voices above all others in denouncing gun shops like this.

The agency moved to revoke 64 licenses in fiscal year 2009 stemming from more than 11,000 inspections - the most recent figures available.

Now there's a small precentage for you. The first thing that comes to my mind is that crooked gun dealers can so easily conceal their criminal activity that the number of requested revocations was only 64. The second thing that comes to mind is that those 64 must really be bad. You'd think everybody would rejoice when those guys were put out of business, but I'm afraid it doesn't work like that.

Revoking a license can take years because of a law that allows a so-called "de novo review" by a federal judge - a fresh look at the matter that may result in a trial. In the Shawano case, Griesbach did not hold such a trial, yet the case still took 18 months to conclude as each side submitted hundreds of pages of documents.

When, after years of accumulating violations and evidence, the ATF finally succeeds in closing down this criminal enterprise, they'll just do what Badger Outdoors did.

That would be similar to a case in 2006, when ATF investigators recommended revoking the license of Badger Outdoors in West Milwaukee.

There was no revocation and the store remains open, operating as Badger Guns. 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 one federal official called a "clean slate," a Journal Sentinel investigation found earlier this year.

To me, one of the strongest indictments against gun owners in general is their, not only turning a blind eye to this nonsense, but actually supporting it by protecting criminal gun dealers. It not only taints them all with guilt, it undermines their attempts to be accepted as responsible citizens exercising their rights.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Shawano Gun and Loan

JS Online reports on the way legitimate gun shops and their supporters are nothing more than brazen criminals in disguise, and how they aid and abet the criminals who don't bother with any attempt at dissimulation.

From almost the time it opened in 1998, Shawano Gun and Loan has been in trouble with federal authorities.

After repeatedly warning the store about missing records and other violations, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives took the unusual step of revoking its license in 2007.

Nearly three years later, the case is tied up in federal court in Green Bay where an appeal could grind on for years.

And the store continues to sell guns - thousands of them each year - with the ATF's blessing.

What's more, the owner told the ATF that he might transfer the operation to his nephew. That could keep the store operating and erase the violations and revocation - similar to the scenario that unfolded in 2006 at the West Milwaukee store that has sold every gun used to wound six Milwaukee police officers in the past 2 ½ years.

The story goes on to describe the similarities between these guys and the Badger gang. What I can't understand is how truly legitimate gun owners can support this nonsense. Don't these guys give all of you a bad name? I, for one, keep saying so. Don't you think other people see it that way?

The delaying tactics, stretching out the court appearances so as to continue the illegal practices, are the tactics of criminals not legitimate businessmen. Blatantly violating rules and guidelines and simply relinquishing the licence so your nephew with a clean record can take over the business is the trick of a white-collar criminal.

When the misguided gun owners who defend and support these practices actually result in weaker and less effective laws, everyone suffers, everyone pays for that.

Straw buying is a crime - for the buyer and the clerk who knowingly makes the sale. It is a federal felony but remains a misdemeanor in Wisconsin after the Legislature failed to pass a law making it a felony this year.

Please leave a comment.