Should we expect anything less when a businessleaves its neighbors dead in the street?
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Police Chief EdwardFlynn and District Attorney John Chisholm have launched an aggressive campaignagainst Badger Guns, the West Milwaukee gun store across the city border thathas sold one-third of the guns traced from crimes in Milwaukee over the last four years.
That includes all of the guns used to wound six Milwaukee police officers in the last two years, which iswhy Milwaukeepolice are taking it personally.
Badger is not only the leading licensed supplier ofcrime guns in Wisconsin, it had the distinction of being No. 1 in the nation inselling deadly weapons connected to crimes when the federal government lastreleased data in 2005.
There’s no reason to believe Badger has surrenderedits bloodstained crown since, but Congress, as usual caving to politicalpressure from the National Rifle Association, ordered the Justice Department tostop releasing the information.
In a gun-happy state, no other gun store comesremotely close to Badger in providing guns to murder, wound and rob citizens.The Shooters Shop in West Allis, just asaccessible to Milwaukeeresidents, came in second, selling less than 3% of the guns traced from crimesover the same four-year period.
Badger has been a bad neighbor for a long time, butFlynn, a year and a half after arriving in town, has seen enough.
“I had an ‘enough-is-enough’ moment,” Flynn said.“They know to whom they are selling, they know what is happening with theirproduct, they know citizens in Milwaukeeare dying, and they don’t care.”
The first reaction of Adam Allan, the owner ofBadger Guns, to being called out by Milwaukeelaw enforcement officials was to accuse Milwaukeepolice of racism for a concerted action of stopping customers traveling back toMilwaukee afterleaving Allan’s store.
Over two-and-a-half months, Milwaukee police seized 12 guns from felonsand others leaving the store. They arrested nine felons for illegallypossessing guns and seven for carrying concealed weapons. Undercover officersalso observed felons, who cannot legally possess or use firearms, practicingtheir shooting skills on Badger’s firing range.
The question for West Milwaukee village officials iswhy they have never shown the same concern as Milwaukee officials about how a licensedbusiness in their community is being operated.
Allan, a longtime employee of Badger, became theowner in 2007, two years after the store was identified as the biggest sellerof crime guns in the United States.
Transfer of ownership usually provides anopportunity for local police and political leaders to challenge the licensingof a business associated with lawless behaviorwhen they care.
If West Milwaukee police were being shot and West Milwaukeecitizens were being murdered and robbed with the hundreds of crime guns flowingout of Badger Guns, West Milwaukee certainlywould have found a way to close down the store by now.
More Excuses
Allan’s explanation of why felons are allowed topractice their aim on his shooting range is that the law doesn’t require him tocheck the criminal records of those using the range.
Allan says he operates his business within the law.That says more about how full of holes gun laws are in this country than how aresponsible businessman should conduct himself.
Allan sounds like Eric Thompson, the Green Bay,Wis., gun dealer who’s sold guns and accessories over the Internet to threemass murderersSeung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Techin 2007; Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five people and himself at NorthernIllinois University in 2008; and George Sodini, who killed three women andhimself at a Pittsburgh fitness center in 2009.
Thompson and Allan say their businesses violate nolaws. But just because irresponsible business practices are legal doesn’t meanthey’re right or decent.
Providing guns to shoot police officers or childrenplaying in their yards is not the sort of business respectable citizens shouldwant in their communities.
Allan says there are no laws preventing him fromselling deadly weapons to individuals who use them in violent crimes or act asstraw buyers for murderers. But there also are no laws preventing a reputablebusinessman from refusing to sell a gun to anyone.
At the very least, Badger Guns should do the samecustomer screening as every other gun store that provides a tiny fraction ofguns used in crimes compared to Badger.
Communities shut down bars after a couple ofshooting incidents. Surely, something can be done about a bad neighbor likeBadger Guns that is responsible for hundreds of homicides and shootings.
