Here is a true story I thought I should share with you:
In a small town a hardware store was combined with a convenience store and gas station. The hardware store also sold guns.
In addition to the owner, there was a lady about 70 to 75 years old who worked in the hardware store. I'll call her Betty and the owner Bob. (Not their real names.)
One day two jovial fellows came into the hardware store. One jokingly remarked that he probably should not even be in the hardware store since he had been convicted of a domestic violence crime, and was therefore not even allowed to buy a gun. I'll call him Jack. (Not his real name.) But his partner apparently did not have any legal problems with gun ownership, and he was interested in all kinds of guns. I'll call him Jim, and of course this is not his real name either. This pair becames friends with Betty, and she always showed them any gun they wanted to see in the counter, etc.
After a few weeks, Jim began buying and/or ordering guns and Betty always did the proper background checks, got all the forms filled out, etc. Jim always paid for his guns in cash. After many months of this, one day Jim and Jack came in to pick up a gun that Jim had ordered. And Jim discovered that he was $10.00 short in what he needed to pay for the gun. So he looked over at his good buddy Jack and asked him if he could loan him $10.00 until he could pay him back. Jack jokingly complied, pulled a $10 bill out of his wallet and gave it to Jim so he could pay for his gun.
This happened several other times over about a year, and Betty thought nothing of it.
However, one day the Bureau of ATF & Explosives raided the store and took Betty and the owner Bob both away in handcuffs.
Why?
Because Betty's two "friends" were actually ATF agents, and in allowing Jack to give Jim $10.00 so he could pay for his legally acquired handgun, she had actually witnessed a "strawman purchase." A "stawman purchase" exists when one person gives another person the money to buy a gun. Sound ridiculous?
Well, it did not sound ridiculous to the anti-gun judge who heard the case. He gave Betty one year in federal prison, and he gave Bob a year and a day in prison since he was the owner of the place.
So they both went to prison, even though the required background criminal checks had been completed, even though all the forms had been filled out, and even though their records were in order. Betty had been duped into allowing a strawman purchase by the two ATF agents.
Bob lost everything. The hardware store, convenience store and the gas station all had to be closed. Betty went into a depression, and when she was released from prison sold her house and left the state.
I know both of these people personally. While Bob was in prison, I wrote letters to him just to help him through the ordeal. In one of his letters to me, he wrote: "I can't believe this is happening to me in America."
Mauser720 - Ron
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