4 days ago
‘Don't Lie for the Other Guy.' ATF targets straw purchases of guns
In the year Ashley Perez has worked as a cashier for an indoor gun range, she has witnessed a grim trend that firearm retailers have seen in recent years.
'I had a homeless lady come in. ... She was trying to purchase a gun, but just with dollar bills. ... [Another time] a mother came in to buy her younger son a gun, saying, 'It's for me,' while the son was saying it's for him,' the 24-year-old described seeing last summer.
Perez and her team at Top Gun Indoor Range Florida in Kendall identified the pattern in both cases almost instantly. They were tell-tale attempts at straw purchases — buying firearms for people legally prohibited from owning them.
It's a federal crime that could land an a offender a $250,000 fine and a 15-year prison sentence. A 2022 act signed by then-President Joe Biden tacks on 10 more years behind bars if the gun is used to commit a felony, an act of terrorism or a drug-trafficking crime.
In a public campaign, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is warning potential straw purchasers about those steep penalties.
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'The message behind the campaign is simple: If you're buying a gun for someone who can't legally own one, you are committing a crime,' said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent John Vecchio during a Friday press conference at the gun range. 'You're helping potentially arm someone with dangerous intentions.'
Vecchio joined the ATF, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office and National Shooting Sports Foundation at Top Gun to announce the newest iteration of the 'Don't Lie for the Other Guy' campaign, which aims to curb the crime.
Next month, South Floridians can expect to see billboards and posters with messaging that includes 'Buy a gun for someone who can't and buy yourself 15 years in jail.' Listeners of top radio stations and podcasts will hear the same. The 25-year-old, nationwide campaign isn't changing its strategies, but instead focusing on South Florida, which is a magnet for domestic and international gun trafficking.
'The availability of firearms is higher here and the restrictions on sales are a little bit less than they are in some states,' explained Rob Cekada, the ATF's deputy director, on why the crime is prevalent in the area. 'One of the reasons we picked Miami ... there's a lot of firearms trafficking that begins here and ends up in the Caribbean and also ends up in Mexico as well.'
But the real danger behind straw-purchasing, Cekada says, is how it arms South Florida felons and encourages violent crimes.
The deputy director's latest investigation, he shared, is still turning up illegally traded guns at crime scenes that happened in Miami and Margate and are linked to two Florida straw purchasers who bought more than 48 firearms.
A 2024 ATF report confirms the pipeline nationwide, revealing that of the 7,000+ cases between 2017 and 2021 in which firearms were peddled, 60% of the 'end users' had at least one prior felony conviction.
'Rarely do we recover a firearm at a crime scene that was purchased by the perpetrator,' said Hayden O'Byrne, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, at the briefing.
He added that retailers such as Top Gun and other federal firearm licensees play a large role in preventing straw purchases, calling them 'the first line of defense.' FFLs are individuals or businesses allowed to manufacture, import and deal firearms and are required to renew the permit with ATF every three years.
Because Florida gun laws require only federal firearm licensees — not private sellers — to conduct background checks when transferring firearms, employees such as Perez are crucial to preventing the crime.
'We look out for signs, that's the first thing we do. The second we see a person walk through the door, we see the way they stand, the way they're speaking, if they're grabbing their phone too much,' she said. 'We want our hands [clean], and we want to do it the right way and the legal way.'
That's why the 'Don't Lie for the Other Guy' campaign is teaching retailers how to identify straw-purchasers.
'This is a two-prong approach,' said Joseph Bartozzi, president of the NSSF, which launched the campaign with the ATF in 2000. 'Part of it is we help to work with the retailers like this to teach them about how to identify the red flags.'
The other half? To warn everyday people unaware of the crime's severity before they make the mistake.
Bartozzi cleared up that though money is a key motivator for those initiating straw purchases, it's not the only one.
Peer pressure and 'a sense of loyalty' to family or friends explain why some participate in the crime. Others are emotionally manipulated or threatened with physical harm by those barred from owning guns themselves. Some just don't know it's illegal.
'It's not just criminal, but even unwitting, law-abiding people that might be caught up with a boyfriend or girlfriend,' he said. 'We want to make sure everyone understands that it is a crime, even if it's unintentionally related to a crime that's going to be committed later on.'
