Tag Archives: gun dealers in Dickinson North Dakota

Southwest North Dakota Gun Dealer Illegally Uses Buyers’ Personal Information

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About one month ago, the manager of a store that sells guns in southwest North Dakota told me that he had gone into his store’s paper work files of gun buyers, looked at the personal information provided by a gun buyer on their NICS form, and performed an internet search of this person on social media.

The reason why this store manager told me this, was because he did not know that this was very illegal, and strictly prohibited conduct of a licensed FFL gun dealer. Below is the Federal Government Form that FFL gun dealers and their employees must sign:

Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) Officer/Employee
Acknowledgment of Responsibilities
under the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

Being an officer or employee of the following named Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL):

Name of FFL ___________________________FFL Number______________
Business/Trade Name (if different from FFL name)_____________________
FFL Address City___________________ State__________ Zip____________

I, the undersigned, hereby acknowledge that I have read and understand
my obligations and responsibilities under the NICS as an FFL officer
or employee, as detailed in the FBI outline: Responsibilities of an
FFL under the NICS. In consideration of being permitted access to NICS related information as part of my employment, I accept and agree to
comply with these obligations and responsibilities. I further
acknowledge my legal obligation to the NICS, my employing FFL, and
affected firearms transferees to safeguard all NICS-related information
to which I may be exposed and to protect it from unauthorized use or disclosure. I also acknowledge that all communications with the NICS
Section, including telephone or electronic, are subject to monitoring
and/or recording by the FBI or its representatives, and that my
participation in any communications with the NICS Section constitutes
my consent to such monitoring and recording.
Officer/employee signature __________________
Officer/employee name __________________
Date signed __________________
Witnessed on behalf of the FFL by:
Witness signature __________________
Witness name __________________
Witness title/position in FFL __________________
COMPLETED COPIES OF APPENDIX A TO BE RETAINED BY FFL
DUPLICATE LOCALLY AS REQUIRED

If you wish, you can look up this FFL Form and other information using this link: https://ucr.fbi.gov/nics/federal-firearms-licensees/ffl-acknowledgment-of-responsibilities-under-nics

For those of you who do not purchase or own firearms, what I am writing probably does not matter to you. For those of you who do purchase and own firearms, many of you are probably leery of providing a record of your firearm purchase to the Federal Government, because it could eventually lead to more Federal Government regulation, rules, and laws concerning this firearm.

Many people who purchase and own firearms believe that the original and complete wording of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, where it says, “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”, that this means that there should not be any interference, obstruction, blocking, delays of people lawfully obtaining firearms, but the NICS process is interference, obstruction, blocking, and delays.

If people want to purchase a firearm from an FFL gun store, they are required to fill out the NICS paperwork, which includes Full Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Drivers License Number, Current Home Address, Phone Number, and I believe Place Of Birth. This personal information is usually transmitted to the NICS center via a telephone call from the FFL gun store employee while the gun buyer is present.

The purpose of the NICS process, was to quickly determine if the gun buyer is legally prohibited from purchasing a firearm. The most common reason for a person to be legally prohibited from owning a firearm is previous conviction of a felony.

From the Federal Government Form for FFL gun stores that I included a copy of above, it states that the FFL gun store employees must read and sign that: “I further acknowledge my legal obligation to the NICS, my employing FFL, and affected firearms transferees to safeguard all NICS-related information to which I may be exposed and to protect it from unauthorized use or disclosure.”

The manager of this FFL gun store in southwest North Dakota, telling me that he went into the file of a gun buyer, after their NICS had been called in, after they had left the store, to collect their full name, date of birth, and current address to go look them up on social media to satisfy their personal curiosity, is exactly the Unauthorized Use that is never supposed to happen.

To put this another way, what if you went to a hospital for medical treatment, and you supplied your name, date of birth, social security number, current address, and other personal information as required. Hospital staff who receive this personal information are not supposed to go look the patient up on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Realtor.com, to find out where they work, who they are in a relationship with, how much money they make, what kind of house they live in, to satisfy their own personal curiosity. The same principle would apply to people who work at a Bank who have access to your personal information.

I notified the two owners of this FFL gun store by e-mail, including a copy of the Federal
Government Form for FFL gun stores that prohibits unauthorized use of the NICS personal information provided by gun buyers, but they did not respond.

Because I received no response from the owners of this southwest North Dakota gun store, the following day I called the ATF in Fargo that handles the licensing and regulation of firearms dealers in North Dakota.

To me, this is just another example of ignorance and corruption in North Dakota. The manager of this gun store, not only did he not know that it is illegal to use gun buyers’ personal information for his own entertainment, enjoyment, and curiosity, he doesn’t see this as unethical or inappropriate. Neither do the two owners of this gun store.

Runnings In Dickinson Calls Police On Gun Buyer

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In today’s Dickinson Press Newspaper, I read in the Police Blotter section, that on January 23 the Runnings Farm & Fleet store in Dickinson had called the City of Dickinson Police about a possible “straw buyer” of a firearm.  This was very concerning to me, and I will explain why.

There are three main things that I want to point out, and then explain in more detail:

One, If you have ever purchased a firearm for your wife, daughter, son, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, friend, or anyone, you could be reported for a felony punishable by more than one year in prison, if the firearm dealer chose to report you.  The reason why you would be guilty of a felony, is because when you complete the firearm purchase and registration forms required by the Federal Government or ATF, you are required to answer, “Are you the actual transferee/buyer of the firearm(s) listed on this form? Warning: You are not the actual buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual buyer, the dealer cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you.”

Two, You should be concerned that at the time of the sale of a firearm to you, or at a later date, a gun dealer or an employee of Runnings Farm & Fleet could use your personal information on file at the store, to report you to the Police for a felony, based on suspicion, something they saw, heard, or became aware of, regarding a friend or family member possessing a firearm that was sold to you.

Three, If an employee of a gun dealer or Runnings Farm & Fleet is so convinced that the person they are selling a firearm to is a “straw buyer” that they would call the Police to report it, why would they make this sale in the first place?

When I read the Dickinson Press Newspaper this morning about Runnings Farm & Fleet calling the Police about a “straw buyer” of a firearm, I began trying to look up the North Dakota law, or any law that covers this.  After I had spent about one hour trying to look up the law on this, and reading reports of several different court cases, I learned that the easiest and simplest way to prosecute the accusation that someone was a “straw buyer” of a firearm, was to prosecute them for falsifying the paper work that they signed, which is a crime in itself.

The most famous applicable case, is the U.S. Supreme Court case of 2014 Abramski versus United States.  In this case a former Police Officer living in Virginia purchased a Glock handgun for his Uncle living in Pennsylvania, because he was able to buy it cheaper using his Law Enforcement discount at a gun dealer in Virginia.  In this case, some of the law that was cited that led to Abramski being found guilty of a crime was:

The Gun Control Act of 1968 regulates the sale and transfer of guns. Section 922(a)(6) of the act makes it unlawful for any person acquiring a gun from a gun dealer to “knowingly … make any false or fictitious … written statement … likely to deceive” the dealer, “with respect to any fact material to the lawfulness of the sale.”  Section 924(a)(1)(A) of the same act, makes it unlawful and provides a penalty for anyone who “knowingly makes any false statement or representation with respect to the information required by this chapter to be kept in the records of a firearms dealer under this chapter.”

And even more specifically, the “false statement or representation” that was made by Abramski to the gun dealer, what I already cited up above previously, was when he answered in the gun dealer paperwork the question:

“Are you the actual transferee/buyer of the firearm(s) listed on this form? Warning: You are not the actual buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual buyer, the dealer cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you.”

To the readers who are thinking ahead of me, on how to circumvent this law, if you waited a certain amount of time, no one knows exactly how long, in order to demonstrate that you were the actual owner of the firearm for a period of time, and then at a later date you chose to sell this firearm or give it away as a gift, you could use this as your legal defense.  But I want to point out and remind everyone, that it costs just as much money to hire an attorney to defend yourself when you are charged with a crime, whether you are innocent or guilty, so do you even want to be charged with a crime in the first place?

The reason why I am so concerned about Runnings in Dickinson calling the Police to report a “straw buyer”, is that if they really thought that this person was buying this firearm on behalf of another person, possibly because of hearing something this buyer said, Runnings should have told this buyer, “We have reason to believe that you intend to purchase this firearm for someone else, based on what we heard you say, this would be a felony punishable by more than one year in prison, and we are not able to knowingly be involved in this sale or this felony.”

If Runnings in Dickinson heard a customer talking about a firearm and saying something such as, I think that my wife would like this, I think that my daughter would like this, I think that my son would like this, or my father always wanted a gun like this, and Runnings completed the sale, then telephoned the Dickinson Police to report a “straw buyer”, I think that everyone in Dickinson should be made aware that this can happen, so that they don’t do this.  If someone is convicted of this felony of being a “straw buyer”, they will no longer be able to buy or possess any firearm.

I don’t know how much of a detective and informant I want a gun dealer or Runnings Farm & Fleet to be.  Probably not at all.  Probably, if they are going to report me to the Police for buying a firearm from them, please just don’t sell me a firearm in the first place.

How far is Runnings Farm & Fleet in Dickinson going to take this?  Are they going to assume that someone accompanying a buyer and giving their advice or expressing their preference is actually going to be the owner of the firearm being purchased?  Is Runnings going to call the Police after the sale, and turn over the store and parking lot surveillance videos to be used to prosecute people?

Why would you purchase a firearm from Runnings Farm & Fleet in Dickinson if you had any reason to believe that they were surveilling you and going to report you to the City of Dickinson Police after you purchased a firearm from them?  Do you want to be questioned and investigated by the City of Dickinson Police?  Do you want the City of Dickinson Police getting into your personal business?

Runnings Farm & Fleet, Dickinson, North Dakota, manager Doug Tyrrell, phone 701-483-1226.