Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, in partnership with D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb and Everytown Law, a gun safety litigation nonprofot, announced a lawsuit Tuesday against three Rockville gun shops for allegedly ignoring warning signs that a customer was trafficking firearms to sell to people without gun licenses.
The lawsuit alleges that three shops–Engage Armament LLC, United Gun Shop and Atlantic Guns Inc.–“ignored clear warning signs” that Demetrius Minor was buying firearms with the intent of trafficking them as a “straw purchaser,” meaning that he was buying the weapons with the intent to transfer them to people who are not legally allowed to own them, according to a press release from Brown’s office.
The owners or representation for all three shops could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. Engage is located at 701 E Gude Drive #101, United is located at 5465 Randolph Road and Atlantic Guns is located at 15813 Frederick Road.
Minor, a Montgomery County resident, was prosecuted in December 2022 for making the purchases between April and October 2021. The legal complaint states that Minor purchased 25 handguns from Engage, five from United and four from Atlantic Guns and that “nearly all” were trafficked to other people. According to Brown’s office, at least nine of the guns sold to Minor have been recovered at crime scenes in Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and D.C.
Gun shops are obligated under the law to prevent straw purchases, according to Brown’s office. The lawsuit alleges the gun shops should have deduced Minor was doing something illegal based on the volume of similar firearms he was purchasing in a short period of time and that they were “willingly conspiring with, and aiding and abetting” Minor.
“[Minor] was obviously engaged in illegal straw purchasing—but the Defendants did not care,” the complaint states. “They kept taking his money and selling him more guns, putting the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area at risk.”