Philly is suing three local gun stores for allegedly selling firearms to ‘straw purchasers’

Philadelphia is suing three local gun shops that city officials allege have knowingly sold firearms to “straw purchasers” who buy guns on behalf of people who are legally prohibited from doing so, such as juveniles or people with criminal records.

“These gun shop owners turn a blind eye to the consequences of their actions,” Mayor Jim Kenney said at a City Hall news conference Tuesday. “They know exactly what they’re doing. … They are profiting off the mayhem that they help create.”

Kenney has long complained that the city’s hands are tied when it comes to combating the ongoing gun violence crisis due to Pennsylvania’s weak gun laws, which allow weapons to flow freely into the city, and to the state’s prohibition on municipalities enacting their own gun control measures.

» READ MORE: Philly has a gun problem. Straw buying makes it worse.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of attempts by the city to gain some leverage over the issue through the courts. It comes three weeks after Kenney announced a separate lawsuit aimed at manufacturers of “ghost guns,” untraceable and increasingly common weapons that can be purchased without background checks and assembled at home.

Little has come so far of the city’s various attempts at litigation over gun control. But Kenney said his administration will pursue every opportunity it has to reduce shootings and homicides.

As of Monday, Philadelphia police had recorded 240 homicides in 2023, a staggering sum that underscores the city is still mired in a persistent public safety crisis that began in 2020. This year’s total is 22% lower than at the same point in 2021, a year in which the city set a record with 562 homicides.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Tuesday she is optimistic the numbers will continue going in the right direction.

“Our numbers are decreasing,” she said. “They’re far lower than they were last summer.”

The defendants in the new lawsuit are Delia’s Gun Shop and Frank’s Gun Shop & Shooting Range in Northeast Philadelphia, and Tanner’s Sport Center in Jamison, Bucks County. Between 2015 and 2019, about 1,300 guns from those stores were recovered by Philadelphia police in relation to criminal investigations, Kenney said.

The lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, focuses on 158 “crime guns” from those stores that the city says it has proven were obtained through straw purchasers.

» READ MORE: The Kingsessing mass shooting suspect used ghost guns, police say. Philly is suing two manufacturers.

The city is asking the court to require the stores to crack down on straw purchases and to pay the city a to-be-determined “financial compensation to address the harms caused by gun violence in our communities, which has been facilitated by the illegal activities of the vendors named in the lawsuit,” according to a news release from Kenney’s office.

Representatives for Frank’s and Delia’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Tom Helenski, a co-owner of Tanner’s, said his store works diligently to identify and turn away straw purchasers and that the business will fight the lawsuit.

“As far as I know, Tanner’s has had one of the best records out there,” he said. “We have a very vigilant staff. … We stop purchases all day every day.”

Helenski said Tanner’s might deny someone seeking to purchase a gun for many reasons, such as if the buyer smells like alcohol or marijuana, if they appear to be following directions on their phone about what to buy, if someone else is waiting for the buyer in a car outside, or if the person repeatedly buys the same type of weapon.

He added that the current owners purchased the store in December, triggering an audit by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Helenski said Tanner’s received positive marks and has “great relationships with local police departments, ATF, and the state police.”

Lawsuits against gun sellers are rare because of a 2005 federal law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects firearms makers and sellers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products, except in certain circumstances.

One of those exceptions is for companies that “knowingly violate federal and state gun laws,” and Philadelphia is alleging that the three store did exactly that by turning a blind eye to straw purchasers, said Alla Lefkowitz, senior director of affirmative litigation for Everytown Law, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control and is working with the city in the lawsuit.

“Lawsuits like this are uncommon, but they do exist,” Lefkowitz said.

She pointed to a recent settlement in a similar case in Kansas City, Mo., in which a store agreed to pay $150,000 and adopt policies such as video recording every sale and limiting the number of handguns one person can purchase in one month.

“I hope this lawsuit serves as a warning to any other gun store that believes it can profit off of illegal gun sales,” Lefkowitz said.