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Monday, May 2, 2011

Crime Four Washington Men Arrested For Illegal Gun Sales

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:27 AM

Last week, a federal grand jury indicted four Washington men for illegally selling hundreds of firearms at gun shows without licenses, effectively profiting from gun sales while skirting federal laws that require licensed dealers to execute background checks and document to whom guns are sold.

David Devenny, 68, of Olympia, was arrested last November after selling a firearm to a convicted felon. He's been indicted for unlawful dealing in firearms and two counts of selling firearms to a prohibited person. In a press release, the Department of Justice states that Devenny allegedly admitted to undercover law enforcement officers that a gun he'd sold had been used to murder Officer Timothy Brenton on October 31, 2009. Devenny supposedly recalled selling the gun at a gun show in Puyallup but didn't remember who'd purchased the weapon. Christopher Monfort goes on trial for the aggravated murder of Officer Brenton this year.

Along with Devenny, the grand jury indicted 56-year-old Belfair resident Roy Alloway for unlawful dealing in firearms; Bremerton man Kenneth Gussoni, 55, and Mark Skiles, 46, of Belfair, were each indicted for conspiracy to unlawfully deal in firearms and one count of unlawful dealing in firearms.

A lengthy investigation of Western Washington gun shows conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that none of the men indicted held a current Federal Firearms Dealer License, which mandates that dealers complete background checks on potential buyers and document gun sales (which helps law enforcement trace guns used in crimes).

Private collectors can sell guns from their personal collection at gun shows without becoming licensed dealers. However, indictment documents state that these men would buy hundreds of guns from licensed gun dealers, hold the guns for short periods of time—from days to weeks—and then re-sell them at gun shows.

During the investigation, 229 guns were seized, including three machine guns. Agents also seized military grade explosives, grenades, a silencer and tear gas pen guns. The indictment seeks to forfeit these items to the government.

The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on May 9, 2011.

Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Why bother?

Tell them to rename themselves the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, Marijuana and Firearms.

THEN, and only then, will we talk to them.

Love the pens - do they come in electric rave green?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 2, 2011 at 11:31 AM

My dad worked at ATF For 30 years, most of it in Seattle.

One thing that always bugged him when it came to gun shows, was that as long as the sales of guns didnt exceed 51% of your anual income of the seller, then you didnt need a license, didnt need to conduct background checks. You sold that AK-47 to anyone for any reason.

So you claim to earn 50,000$ a year with a 9-5 job, which means you couldnt sell more than 26,000$ worth of guns in order to stay classified as a private dealer.

As my dad would say "There are ways around this, most of which involve lying to inspectors".

Posted by Kinison

on May 2, 2011 at 12:05 PM

@1, if you get your TAMF on, Will, who are "we" in the little tête-à-tête you envision?

@2, wouldn't that be more like $52,000 worth of guns, since $50,000 from real work + $52,000 from gun shows = $102,000 total annual income, ~51% of which would be from gun sales?

Posted by rob!

on May 2, 2011 at 12:51 PM

And people say that a waiting period is a bad thing.

Posted by venomlash on May 2, 2011 at 4:27 PM

the few guns shows i have been to in washington had some cops running around like a maniac shoving paperwork in everyones face and trying to run every name in the place. he was lying to everyone about having to wait for the gun etc. trying to do what . discourage the sale ,get a bust what ever . i found it so intrusive that i walked out of more than one show demanding my money back . the whole point of a gun show is to not deal with this crap . the gun nazis are allready out of control now . wyoming has some great ideas on gun control , they do nothing. no guns are registered ,no serial numbers taken etc. the only time you get your name ran is if you hock the thing at a pawn shop . if the gun is custom made in wyoming it doesn't even get a serial number. they are now talking about getting rid of the concealed carry permit requirement too . now on the other hand , you involve your self in a gun crime they throw you up the river for decades . so you have your freedom until you fuck up , then bam you are gone . thats the way it should be . if you want to slow down the shooting in america , make bullets cost 5,000 bucks a piece .

Posted by whatsbeckgottadowithit on May 2, 2011 at 5:32 PM

@5: "the whole point of a gun show is to not deal with this crap"
Welp, thanks for admitting that the point of a gun show is to circumvent safety regulations. And sorry, even at a gun show professional firearms salesmen typically have to run names. If you're too much of a pussy to wait three days for your boomstick, that's your own problem.

Posted by venomlash on May 2, 2011 at 8:45 PM

patients my ass , i wanna kill something now !

Posted by whatsbeckgottadowithit on May 3, 2011 at 1:32 AM