A prominent gun-control organization is urging California prosecutors to investigate one of the state’s largest firearms retailers, citing federal trace data that it says links a significant share of recovered crime guns to the company’s stores.
They just have one problem: the data doesn’t add up.
On June 4, Brady United sent a letter to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman calling for an investigation into Turner’s Outdoorsman, a major firearms retailer with dozens of locations across California. The organization pointed to federal tracing statistics showing that 22.48% of firearms recovered from crimes in California and traced to an in-state dealer originated from Turner’s stores.
“In 2024, more than one in five guns recovered from crimes statewide (22.48%) that were traced to a California dealer (829) came from a Turner’s,” the organization claimed.
Brady United also noted that the eight California dealers with the highest number of traced firearms in 2024 were all Turner’s locations.
The retailer’s footprint in the state is substantial, explained The Daily Caller. According to reporting by The Trace, Turner’s accounts for roughly 20% of California firearm sales through its 36 stores. The company also maintains policies that exceed some state requirements, including a practice of declining firearm transfers when a background check returns an “undetermined” result.
“If your background check status becomes undetermined, we will issue a refund for the firearm and will encourage you to contact CA DOJ in order to learn what created the delay/undetermined status so that you can rectify the issue in order to avoid future occurrences of the same status on future purchases,” the company states on its website.
Turner’s executives rejected suggestions that the trace statistics indicate misconduct by the retailer.
“Turner’s Outdoorsman has a proven commitment to regulatory compliance, as evidenced by regular The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and California DOJ audits that consistently confirm that Turner’s adheres to, and in some cases exceeds, all applicable laws and regulations,” Turner’s Outdoorsman Senior Vice President Bill Ortiz told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Ortiz argued that trace data is frequently misunderstood and does not establish responsibility on the part of a dealer.
“Firearms trace data provides investigative leads only. Trace data does not indicate wrongdoing by the retailer,” he continued. “The shorthand term ‘crime gun’ itself lacks a formal definition and often includes firearms that are merely ‘suspected’ of being involved in a crime or were traced for a variety of other reasons. This vagueness highlights the absence of a direct or reliable link between trace data and dealer conduct. For instance, consider a case where a firearm is stolen from a law-abiding customer and later recovered. That firearm would still be labeled a ‘crime gun,’ even though neither the dealer nor the customer engaged in any criminal activity.”
Any investigation of the scope sought by Brady United could subject the retailer to significant legal costs and regulatory scrutiny, which, of course, is the point. Similar efforts have targeted other segments of the firearms industry, including lengthy lawsuits against manufacturers over the criminal misuse of firearms by third parties in the hopes of using lawfare to shut them down.
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