arrived at Denver International Airport last week and then purchased a shotgun at a gun store in the suburb of Littleton. What followed was a massive, frantic manhunt and the closure of schools all over northern Colorado. Questions about the legality of that gun purchase persist.
18-year-old Sol Pais had made 鈥榗redible threats鈥� and was infatuated with the Columbine High School shooting, according to the FBI. On April 15th, however, she passed and was able to buy a gun. Two days later , law enforcement reported finding her dead, near Mount Evans, from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Later that day, , the store, Colorado Gun Broker, explained that the young woman did purchase a gun there, that the purchase was legal and that they 鈥渉ad no reason to suspect she was a threat to either herself or anyone else.鈥�
In Colorado, the minimum age to buy a long gun is 18 and there is no waiting period. But the young woman was from Florida.
, a purchase by an out-of-state buyer must comply with state law in the state where the sale is happening as well as the state the buyer is from. In Florida, . The law revising age restrictions, after the Parkland school shooting.
What Gun Shops Say About Out-Of-State Buyers
are required to determine the lawfulness of gun sales including by in the case of out-of-state sales.
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) is required to help firearms dealers stay on top of state laws by publishing an of these laws for Federal Firearms Licensees. But on , the Florida laws are current as of 2016, before the law change that raised the age limit for purchases.
Gun shops have a variety of experiences navigating these sales.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have much experience at all, to be honest. They鈥檙e extremely rare,鈥� Jacquelyn Clark, owner of Bristlecone Shooting in Lakewood, Colorado, said. 鈥淎nd even more rare when it gets called into question the laws in the other states. We鈥檝e never actually dealt with a situation where somebody is between 18 and 21 or coming from a state with recently changed gun laws.鈥�
Clark said they almost had one of these situations recently. Someone under 21, from out of state, came in wanting to buy a rifle. Bristlecone staff suspected that it was a , someone purchasing a firearm for someone else, illegally.
鈥淪o we never even got to the finish line,鈥� Clark said, 鈥淏ut that would be the first one that I would have record of where we would have really needed to figure out how to handle, procedurally, how to handle a sale like that.
Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, said that his store鈥檚 policy is to deny sales to out-of-state buyers.
鈥淧eople will walk in, they鈥檒l want to buy a rifle, they鈥檒l want to buy an AR and we鈥檙e not going to sell them that firearm because they鈥檙e from another state,鈥� Cargill said. 鈥淭he reason is because the laws change so much and I cannot keep up with what the changes are. And I just don鈥檛 want to make a mistake.鈥�
Cargill brought up the Texas sporting goods store that sold the Sutherland Springs shooter his guns and ammunition. In February, families and survivors of the church massacre that left 27 people dead, , arguing that, in Colorado, where the shooter reportedly lived, the sale of the large-capacity magazine would have been illegal.
鈥淗onestly, you have to know the laws if you鈥檙e in this business,鈥� Cargill said of his store鈥檚 own policy. 鈥淚gnorance of the law is no excuse. I don鈥檛 want to get sued and I don鈥檛 want to be charged criminally, so we don鈥檛 do the sale at all.鈥�
A Key Subsection In Florida Law
, a firearms industry lawyer, points to one part of that he believes could be key to understanding legal questions around the controversial Colorado sale:
(c)鈥僒his subsection does not apply to the purchase, trade, or transfer of a rifle or shotgun by a resident of this state when the resident makes such purchase, trade, or transfer from a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer in another state.
Cleckner says it is possible that ATF could be interpreting this provision to mean that the Florida law wouldn鈥檛 apply to an out-of-state purchase. This subsection, however, appears in a different part of the law than the age restriction language.
What鈥檚 Next
The FBI investigation into the Colorado incident is ongoing. In an email, Susan Medina, a spokesperson with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the state agency that processes background checks, wrote that the background check last week showed nothing that would have prevented Sol Pais from legally buying a gun.
鈥淲e understand the concerns surrounding this issue and have already considered ways to strengthen the process,鈥� she wrote in an email to Guns & America. 鈥淭he CBI is currently working with a vendor to develop enhancements to assist firearms dealers in their process of reviewing the laws of other states 鈥� as they are required to do 鈥� prior to submitting the background check request to the CBI.鈥�
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