[url]http://www.pilotonline.com/news/nw1204bob.html[/url]
NORFOLK -- Robert Marcus has never turned down a request by federal agents to help trace a weapon through his store, Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop on Granby Street downtown.
Marcus, who owns the store and has worked there 32 years, understands that firearms sometimes fall into the hands of criminals. He said he wants to do his part to prevent gun-related crimes.
But when federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked him for records of the store's used gun sales, Marcus balked. Despite threats of criminal action and the loss of his license to sell guns, Marcus stood fast and refused.
When the ATF persisted, Marcus took the agency to court.
In a suit filed Nov. 23 in U.S. District Court, just a block from his shop, Marcus claims the government is trying to compile a database of gun owners, something Congress has strictly forbidden.
The bureau, however, says it is trying only to stop handgun violence and the illegal trafficking of firearms.
The case, which hinges on the privacy of gun owners and the Second Amendmentright to keep and bear arms, is certain to attract widespread attention in the long struggle between gun rights' advocates and those trying to prevent gun-related crimes.
Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop sold nearly 2,000 new and used firearms in 1999.
In February 2000, the ATF's National Tracing Center sent Bob's gun shop a letter demanding that the shop turn over the make, model, caliber and serial number of each used firearm bought and sold at the store in 1999.
For the first time, the federal government was collecting data on gun sales.
Bob's was among 430 firearms dealers -- out of 80,000 -- across the country to receive the letter. His shop and the other dealers were singled out because they had sold 10 or more guns that had been used in a crime within three years of purchase, according to ATF.
According to ATF, the average ``time-to-crime'' from when a gun leaves a retailer is six years.
``Research has demonstrated that a high volume of gun traces with a short `time-to-crime' may be an indicator of illegal firearms trafficking,'' the ATF letter said. The agency was not accusing Bob's of any wrongdoing but simply inquiring because Bob's had ``an unusually high number of traces,'' the letter said.
Marcus said it's not unusual for some guns sold at high-volume dealers to turn up at crime scenes. Ten guns, of the 1,986 he sold in 1999, traced to crimes is a small percentage -- about one-half of 1 percent, he said.
In the letter, the ATF did not give an exact number of weapons traced to Bob's or say what crimes they had been used in.
cont'd...