PhillyTablet Inquirer Daily News
Mobile
Home Delivery
philly.com
email
font size
comments
0
options
 
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Feds: Colosimo's sold guns to straw buyers

Controversy is once again visiting Colosimo’s gun dealership.

The shop, which was the target of religious protesters earlier this year, was accused tonight by U.S. Attorney Michael Levy of knowingly selling guns to straw purchasers.
Federal investigators determined the gun shop, on Spring Garden Street near 9th, sold a total of 10 firearms to three straw purchasers between Aug. 4, 2004, and April 18, 2007, according to court documents.
The feds say Colosimo’s identified straw purchasers as the actual buyers in transaction records, even though the shop “knew or had reason to believe that each was not the actual buyer, but a straw purchaser,” documents show.
Levy charged Colosimo’s  with making false statements and failing to properly maintain firearms transaction records.
The shop’s owner, James Colosimo, 77, isn’t specifically named in the court documents, but the feds noted the charges can bring a 5-year probation sentence and $200,000 fine.
In January, a dozen people from a clerical group called Heeding God’s Call were arrested after they twice protested inside Colosimo’s.
The protesters said they targeted Colosimo’s because they determined that 22 percent of guns used in area crimes before 2004 were sold by his shop.
Colosimo told a Daily News columnist in January that he hadn’t done anything wrong. The percentage was high, he said, because he had sold hundreds of thousands of weapons during his 57 years in business.

A municipal judge later dismissed charges of disorderly conduct, defiant trespass and related offenses against all of the protesters.
After the ruling, Colosimo fumed: “They’re not guilty? They broke the law.”
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 11:00 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Comments   


0 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

---

Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

---

Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

--

Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

Follow on Twitter

Share your tips

To send news tips, breaking news pictures or other thoughts to the Philly Confidential team, email phillyconfidential@phillynews.com.
Advertise Here