STRAIGHT SHOOTING: MOST LOCAL GUN DEALERS FOLLOW ATF REGULATIONS

GUNS USED

IN CRIMES

Number of guns used in criminal activities that were traced back to the state or commonwealth in which they were sold:

Texas 9,503

Florida 6,405

Georgia 4,777

California 4,678

Virginia 4,320

Tennessee 3,995

Illinois 3,224

Ohio 3,094

Indiana 2,872

North Carolina 2,773

Louisiana 2,476

Pennsylvania 2,330

Maryland 2,136

Arizona 2,079

Alabama 1,715

New York 1,653

Missouri 1,539

Wisconsin 1,480

South Carolina 1,448

Mississippi 1,274

Michigan 1,165

Kentucky 1,057

Kansas 845

Minnesota 832

New Mexico 733

Arkansas 725

Colorado 664

Oklahoma 645

Oregon 629

Nevada 628

West Virginia 605

Washington 599

New Jersey 507

Connecticut 471

Iowa 431

Nebraska 396

Massachusetts 312

Utah 309

Delaware 292

Puerto Rico 262

New Hampshire 185

Idaho 183

Alaska 178

Maine 177

Rhode Island 150

Montana 109

Vermont 93

South Dakota 85

Wyoming 67

North Dakota 62

Hawaii 60

Guam 45

District of Columbia 29

Virgin Islands 5

Paul Page will get gun buyers any kind of weapon they want, as long as it's legal.

"I had a man from Illinois come in once asking to buy a grenade," said Page, owner of Big Foots, a firearms store in Fruitland. "He looked pretty disappointed when I offered to sell him paint ball grenades."

Page, like most gun dealers in the United States, follows the rules. Since federal background checks were initiated for handgun buyers in 1994, along with other rule modifications, the amount of guns passing from licensed gun dealers to criminals has decreased, mirroring falling rates for violent crime.

Statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from 1998 show that only a tiny fraction of the nation's 93,000 federally licensed gun dealers supplied the guns used in 45 percent of the crimes where the weapon was successfully traced by federal officials.

This takes into account that only since December buyers of long-barreled guns have been required to pass a background check before purchasing.

Among Missouri's 3,785 licensed gun dealers, only two sold 50 or more guns last year that were eventually used in crimes, according to the ATF. One dealer in the northern St. Louis County community of Dellwood had 113 guns traced to crimes, and another in the city of St. Louis had 71 traces.

"Most gun dealers are honest business people doing what they're supposed to do," said Bob Moseley, ATF director of industry operations in Kansas City.

In Cape Girardeau last year, there were 27 crimes in which guns were involved, said police Lt. Dennis Dolan. These were used in 15 robberies and 12 assaults, and most of these guns were purchased outside of Cape Girardeau.

In addition, police seized 29 firearms, Dolan said. In one case, a man was arrested on a weapons charge, and a search of his residence turned up four more guns.

"It also happens that many people find a gun hidden and turn it in to us," he said.

When a gun is recovered from a crime scene, ATF begins the tracing process by recording the gun's serial number, manufacturer and gauge. The manufacturer is then contacted for further information, Moseley said.

"They can usually say that it was sold to a wholesaler on a certain date," he said. From there, the gun is traced to a local dealer, who has information on the buyer.

Obtaining a federal firearms license is a little harder than it used to be, said Larry Scott, an ATF agent in Kansas City. In 1992, a dealer's license cost $30, while now a two-year license costs $200.

Besides having $200 and a place to sell guns that complies with local zoning laws, there are several qualities a legal gun dealer cannot have: felony convictions, drug addiction, non-citizen status, dishonorable discharge from the military, court orders for stalking, convictions for misdemeanor domestic violence, incarcerations in mental institutions and any prior felony charges.

These regulations have eliminated thousands of gun dealers nationally over the past seven years, Scott said.

It's difficult to say whether current laws could prevent another case like that of James E. Treece, the Cape Girardeau man who sold 1,566 handguns over a two-year period to two Nashville men. These men in turn sold the guns to another man, who distributed them, mostly to gang members around Washington D.C.

At least 50 of the weapons were traced to a variety of crimes, including assault, robbery, kidnapping and murder. There is no evidence Treece knew directly that guns were being sold to gang members or to be used for crimes, police said.

Treece, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison and a $30,000 fine last year, had let his federal firearms license expire in 1996 and offered ATF agents falsified records when investigations began.

No magic number of guns sold and used in crimes exists before ATF starts investigations, Scott said. Agents do watch for the percent of crime guns sold by a dealer, and how quickly guns are sold and then used in crimes.

Those who are still operating local gun stores say ATF regulations are something they've learned to accept.

"It's not that we like it or dislike it," said a manager of Shooters Gun Shop in Cape Girardeau. "We have just gotten used to it."

Inconsistencies in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, bother gun dealers most. Every time before a gun is sold, the dealer must call a toll-free number to give the customer's name so it can be checked against a criminal data base.

"It's a name-based system, so if your name matches a criminal name, you can get delayed or denied," the manager of Shooters said.

Even so, the system usually returns a positive answer for most customers within minutes, he said. Very few people receive denials.

In the three years Page has operated Big Foots, only four buyers were rejected. A rejection can be appealed to ATF, but no one at his store has tried yet.

Page, who served 30 years as a deputy sheriff in Florida before returning to the Bootheel area, doesn't mind the ATF agents. He said he has only seen one since he opened his store.

"It's not really their rules," Page said. "They come down from on high."

Page sees a bigger potential for problems from some of the people who come through his doors. They don't understand guns, he said.

"You get a lot of people that you have to educate," he said. "You can literally sell them a cannon that they don't need."

Editor's note: This story was inadvertently omitted from Sunday's Southeast Missourian. It should have accompanied graphical information on Page 1. The Southeast Missourian regrets the error.