Notorious Philly Gun Dealer Colosimo's Pleads Guilty, Closes
Colosimo’s gun store has been on the Brady Campaign’s list of bad apple gun dealers for years.
During just one 7-year period, crime gun trace data revealed that Colosimo’s sold 425 guns traced to crime, including weapons involved in at least 10 homicides, 85 assaults, 30 robberies, and 300 additional gun crimes.
The last time ATF released a comprehensive analysis of crime gun trace data, they revealed that just 1.2% of dealers accounted for 57% of total firearms traced to crime originating at licensed gun dealers.
It is dealers like Colosimo’s which make up that 1.2%.
After pleading guilty today to facilitating straw sales that fuel the illegal gun market — following years of selling hundreds of guns traced to crime — Colosimo’s is finally out of the gun business.
Via Newsradio 1060 KYW (Philadelphia):
A controversial Philadelphia gun store owner has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that the store allowed so-called “straw” purchases — that is, selling guns through an intermediary that would end up in the hands of felons, who are prohibited from owning them.
Colosimo’s gun store, in the 900 block of Spring Garden Street, has been the target of protests for years (related story). On Monday its owner, James Colosimo, admitted in federal court that something illegal was going on in the store: straw purchases.
Assistant US attorney Tomika Stevens says the charges concerned three separate purchasers who bought a total of ten guns for other people:
“The first individual purchased four firearms, the second individual puchased five firearms on four different occasions, and the final person purchased a single firearm.”
Prosecutors described several occasions on which Colosimo’s sold guns, including .38 specials and nine-millimeter pistols, to someone who clearly did not intend to keep the gun.
In some cases, authorities say, a customer told the store clerk had brought someone else along to be the buyer of record because he was prohibited from buying the gun himself.
Colosimo had no comment after his plea, but he stressed in court that he did not personally sell the guns and would not have.
However, as a result of the investigation, he is closing his store. Officials say his license to sell guns has been permanently revoked and he is selling his inventory to other dealers.
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So, I did that by reading up on the shop in a couple of gunny forums that carry the news du jour.
It appears that
1. Mr. Colosimo's business has been the subject of the proverbial witch hunt--but with some justification: the charges outlined above also appear justified.
2. He also was a source of firearms for a number of lawful individual purchases, if the forum postings are any indication, and for LEOs in the area as well.
3. Among gunny buyers, the store had a reputation for being high-priced, with no small amount of dislike for that issue. Mixed in with those complainers were a smaller number of satisfied buyers--very satisfied, for he provided product when others couldn't.
So, is it a loss overall? Maybe--and maybe not. The immediate community has lost a legal resource for firearms. Unfortunately, his closing will have no impact on the illegal acquisition of firearms. Those buyers will just go elsewhere--to burgle, rob, or misrepresent themselves at other gun shops.
gun control: the belief that a woman raped and strangled with her own hose is morally superior to one who defends herself with a firearm.
By weeding out the bad apples, new infringement laws are not justified. We like to say "enforce the laws instead of creating new ones", and this is clearly a case of exactly that happening. The 1.2% of dealers accounting for 57% of total firearms traced to crime figure is astonishing to me.
(Now, BATFE, go catch and convict the people who pull their triggers illegally.)
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
I am skeptical of any statistic spouted by Brady, since so many of them have been successfully refuted by elementary school children with a library card and Internet connection.
If it is a known "fact" that 1.2% of the dealers are responsible for 57% of firearms traced to crime , why are they still in business? Of course, there could be less diabolical reasons behind this statistic, such as Internet sales - which, before anyone jumps on this, still require you go through a dealer and background check, just like any other sales.
Anyway, if this guy was dealing arms illegally, I'm glad he's gone. He's not doing anybody any favors.