WASHINGTON — Three gun stores that sold nearly three dozen firearms to a man who smuggled the weapons in and around Washington, D.C., are facing a new lawsuit Tuesday filed jointly by the attorneys general of Maryland and the nation’s capital.
At least nine of those weapons have now been found at the scene of the crime and/or on people wanted on an arrest warrant for violent crimes. DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. Many of the others are still missing.
“Our city is flooded with illegal guns,” he said. “All three of these stores ignored the red flags.”
Washington, D.C., has been struggling with gun violence in recent years. The nation’s capital saw its highest number of homicides in more than three decades last year, and more than 90 percent of them were committed with firearms, the lawsuit said.
“Many of us watch the news and wonder where all these guns are coming from,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Now we have part of the answer.”
In Washington, the gun supply is often fueled by people buying weapons for others who aren’t legally allowed to own them, Schwalb said. About 95 percent of the guns recovered in Washington, D.C., which has strict gun laws, originally come from nearby Maryland or Virginia, Schwalb said. While some of those are stolen weapons, more come from illegal straw sales, according to data on gun trafficking investigations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and legal action to stop future purchases of the straws.
The lawsuit is the first to be filed collectively and comes as cities and states across the country are filing civil lawsuits against gun stores, including in New JerseyMinnesota, Chicago and Philadelphia. Kansas City too a lawsuit settled last year against an arms dealer accused of ignoring evidence that weapons were being sold illegally.
Licensed gun dealers work with the ATF to identify potential straw purchases, said Larry Keane, senior vice president at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group. Still, he said warning signs aren’t always obvious in busy stores, where a buyer might encounter different employees on different days.
“The focus should be on the actions of the criminal, not on scapegoating retailers who work every day to prevent straw man purchases,” he said, citing a 2016 Justice Department study of incarcerated people that found a relatively small number had obtained firearms from a retailer.
The new lawsuit, filed by the gun safety group Everytown Law, accuses the Maryland stores of failing to respond to warning signs, including buying in large quantities and making repeat purchases.
Two stores, Engage Armament LLC and Atlantic Guns, Inc., did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the third, United Gun Shop, declined to comment.
The three stores sold nearly three dozen similar weapons to Demetrius Minor over a seven-month period in 2021, the indictment said. Nearly all of the weapons were sold to others, including people who are not legally allowed to purchase firearms, the indictment said. For example, one gun was found in a Washington, D.C., hotel room along with an illegal high-capacity magazine, and another was found in the home of a stabbing suspect, the indictment said.
Minor pleaded guilty last year to one count of unlicensed weapons trafficking in a plea agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. An attorney representing Minor could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and legal action to ban future purchases of the straws.