Thousands of would-be gun buyers were stopped by Virginia State Police; No similar program in DC or Maryland – NBC4 Washington

In the first three months of 2024, hundreds of people were arrested in Virginia for attempting to purchase a gun they had no legal right to own.

The Virginia State Police admit there are “a staggering number” of arrests for violations of laws prohibiting felons, domestic abusers, people confined to mental health facilities and others from owning guns. The News4 I-Team could not find a program similar to Virginia’s in D.C. or Maryland.

Lt. Dominic Sottile knows his team at the Virginia State Police Firearms Transaction Center has stopped thousands of people from buying a gun without the right to buy a gun. He said they stopped almost half of them just minutes before they got the gun while the potential buyer was still in a gun shop.

“We don’t want guns to be given to those who aren’t legally allowed to own them,” Sottile told the I-Team.

The program is recognized by gun safety advocates and, according to Sottile, by other law enforcement agencies as a national leader in gun law enforcement.

“It definitely plays a role in crime prevention,” Sottile said.

It also prevented “countless” suicides, he said.

Suicide is the leading cause of firearm death in the United States. People assigned to inpatient psychiatric treatment are prohibited from purchasing guns, and Sottile says the Virginia State Police program has helped prevent suicides.

“I had a lot of cases where they tried to commit suicide and you could tell it was just one way for them to do it,” he said. “These transactions prevent such incidents from happening.”

Federal law requires every gun owner to complete and submit federal background check paperwork before purchasing a gun. Questions will be asked about criminal history, mental health history, and several other questions.

Virginia is one of 14 states across the country that also requires a federal background check. The Virginia State Police conducts both federal and state inspections, allowing them to complete them in real time.

States and jurisdictions like D.C. that rely on the FBI to conduct the checks cannot see them in real time.

According to Virginia State Police, 134,125 people submitted background checks to purchase guns from January to March of this year. Almost all of them have been approved, but if they aren’t or another red flag comes up, the Virginia State Police investigate. They have 15 soldiers stationed full-time in the state’s metropolitan areas, and when a questionable transaction arrives at the Richmond nerve center, a soldier is immediately dispatched to the gun store.

According to Sottile, about 40% of the team’s on-site arrests of prohibited buyers occur at a gun store. The others are arrested after investigations by a police officer.

As of the end of March, VSP had arrested 529 people “in connection with the sale or attempt to purchase firearms based on refused transactions.” Last year there were more than 2,200 arrests.

At NOVA Armory, a gun dealer in Arlington, owner Shawn Poulin is well-versed in the state police program and said selling more guns isn’t always the most important task.

“We want to prevent firearms from ending up in the hands of the wrong young people,” he said.

He said he sees police officers in the store “all the time.”

Christian Heyne, a gun violence survivor and senior policy and program officer for the gun violence prevention organization Brady, told the I-Team that programs that utilize local and state law enforcement can be more effective.

“It is important to keep weapons away from prohibited buyers,” said Heyne. “This is one way the Virginia State Police responds to an immediate threat, leveraging local law enforcement’s relationships with gun dealers and the people in their communities.”

Far from viewing troopers as bad for business, Poulin wishes more agencies would do what the Virginia State Police are doing. He is also a legal gun dealer in Washington, DC

“Front-end enforcement of firearms transactions is enforced differently in Virginia than in D.C.,” he said.

Even though D.C. police don’t have a specialized unit like Virginia’s, they can still enforce firearms restrictions. But when the I-Team wanted to find out whether that was the case, the Metropolitan Police Department referred the police to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This agency only investigates when someone fails a background check but still obtains a gun.

ATF told the I-Team that this had only happened “maybe once or twice in the last five years,” adding, “As far as the gun purchase itself, ATF has nothing to do with it. Prohibited buyers trying to purchase one. “Guns in DC are a problem that would fall to the MPD.”

Poulin says he heard a similar response from MPD. Poulin told the I-Team that he calls the Washington D.C. police a few times a year when he’s worried about a questionable buyer at his store, but nothing happens. In just one episode, Poulin said that a potential buyer “had an altered document that it was quite obvious that a third-grader could have said were two different documents.”

He said MPD told him to call ATF.

“But,” Poulin said, “ATF… It’s not their job to enforce this type of issue.”

The I-Team spent three weeks seeking D.C. police’s opinion on the entire matter. Late Friday, a spokesperson emailed the I-Team: “The Metropolitan Police Department is focused on removing illegal weapons from the streets of the District of Columbia.” When it comes to legally registering a firearm, MPD uses strict guidelines and fingerprint-based background checks that improve federal background checks to determine whether a person is legally eligible to register a firearm under DC Code. MPD does not have a unit specifically dedicated to enforcing prohibited persons who intentionally make false statements to legally purchase or transfer firearms in the county. In 2023, MPD’s background check process prevented 323 people from legally registering a firearm in the county.”

In Maryland, where state law requires a seven-day waiting period to purchase a handgun, dealers and Maryland state police say paperwork is almost always filled out online and outside the gun store, and customers only show up after a background check and waiting period deleted.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Jeff Piper and Steve Jones and edited by Jeff Piper.