by Lee Williams
When Paul Szabo purchased the Shooter’s Emporium in 2020, which is located just a short 45-minute drive north of Indianapolis, he got some “bad vibes” from an employee whom he later terminated.
Szabo’s fears were quickly confirmed. An in-house audit revealed that a brand-new Ruger American Rimfire rifle worth about $350 was missing, and evidence led directly to the former employee.
“I gave him the opportunity to return the rifle. He told us to f— off, so we called the police,” Szabo told the Second Amendment Foundation.
Just a few days later, in July 2022, Szabo also submitted a report to the ATF.
Six months later, the suspect was arrested for the state crimes of theft and forgery: 35-43-4-2(a)/F5: Theft-Use when property stolen is a firearm, and 35-43-5-2(b)(4)/F6: Forgery-Def, w/intent to defraud, makes/utters written instrument.
Now, nearly three years later, Szabo has been waiting for a trial date that never comes, and the suspect was hired by a competing gun shop, where he’s been very busy.
“He hacked all of our social media accounts. He hacked our special-order accounts. We started losing customers to the other dealer, who denied he ever worked there,” Szabo said. “The next thing that happened is the prosecuting attorney sent me an email and had me look at a document. It was a 4473 for the rifle in question, filled out, completed and signed and stamped by another local FFL. It had a different name that signed the 4473 for the rifle, which has been sitting in the police department’s lockup.”
Szabo is livid that the case remains in state court rather than federal court being prosecuted by the ATF.
“We just sent off another letter to the ATF asking how can I have a 4473 from a different gun shop. We’ve got more people involved – another FFL. Why don’t we have a federal case?” he asked. “It’s been three years. The local prosecutor pretty much doesn’t contact me at all. I really have a bad feeling about this.”
Szabo has no idea why the ATF isn’t prosecuting the case.
“I don’t know why they’re not charging him federally, especially with a falsified 4473 for a gun that’s sitting in Kokomo’s police department,” he said. “The trial has been scheduled but then moved six to eight times in the three years that this has been going on.”
The next trial date has been scheduled for late April.
Takeaways
Calls and emails to ATF’s national media inquiries line were not answered or returned, which is not a surprise. The ATF has only responded once to calls stemming from more than a hundred Second Amendment Foundation stories.
Szabo’s case should have been investigated solely by the ATF. The suspect should be facing federal – not state – charges.
The ATF would be more competent at dealing with a fraudulent Form 4473 than any Kokomo Police detective, because legally it’s not their area of concern. It’s a federal crime, after all, or at least it should be.
So, why did the ATF take a pass on this case, which occurred right during the middle of Joe Biden’s presidency? At least that question can be answered: It wasn’t big enough.
Szabo’s problems were allegedly caused by a former gun shop employee, who wasn’t the shop owner. There was no way ATF could strut in, close down another gun shop and force the owner to turn over all their guns, so they didn’t take the case. That much is definitely easy to prove.
Instead, the ATF told the local police to pursue the case, even though they lack the proper training and resources. Besides, at the time, the ATF was busy trying to show Biden and other Democrats that they were more than capable of doing their job and tackling the big cases, even though most of these went bad very quickly.
Just ask Russell Fincher, Mark Manley or Brian Malinowski’s widow if you need more information about how the ATF really works.
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Is the guys name Hunter?
“The trial has been moved six to eight times.”
Would that be a continuance?
Isn’t the law that if the court has three continuances the case is dismissed.
“The local prosecutor doesn’t contact me at all.”
No because the prosecutor contacts your lawyer.
Did Szabo get a public defender, sure sounds like it.
Xdduly, you have the victim confused with the criminal (are you sure you don’t work for the ATF?) You claimed, “The prosecutor contacts your lawyer.” No, the prosecutor is the victim’s lawyer (or they’re supposed to be). When someone is a VICTIM of a crime, the prosecutor contacts the victim. Victims of crimes don’t need defense attorneys; criminals do!
You said, “Did Szabo get a public defender, sure sounds like it.” No, Szabo is the VICTIM of the crime, and a victim doesn’t need a defense attorney, let alone a “public defender.” Criminals need public defenders; victims don’t need defense attorneys!
Are you sure you don’t work for the ATF? Because you’re confusing the criminal with the victim.
Because if I’m going to commit a blatant crime at a gunstore, one that leads directly back to me, it’s going to be over a $350 .22. This whole story is weird. Seems to me that there’s a lot of small, easily resold, non firearm accessories that are worth more than $350 in every single gunstore and don’t come with the risk of a Federal beef.
Have you ever seen a gun store employee meltdown in action? This is actually rather tame.
I’ve seen a lot! Straw purchases,an idiot dealer yelling at customers,employees encouraging lying on a 4473 and of course talking down to women. It does seem odd that an employee would be this blatant. You’d think he was a crooked cop😀
And what happened to my comment?? No interaction for the near future ttag.
Anyone would think the former employee was an ATF snitch moving to their next assignment.
Are we back to strict censorship, err moderation again?
don’t know, today I’ve noticed a delay in my comments showing up after posted, maybe a few minutes sometimes, but didn’t say going to moderation. This happened before prior the latest update.
HAPPENING NOW: Money STRIPPED From Gun Control Operations Has Lefties SQUEALING.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U35LW_LkHZY
There is a ghost in the T TAG machine.
Once the get a priest with some holy water they should be able to exorcise it.
Speaking of Priest and ghost whatever happened to LifeSaver?
I liked that guy.
Testing 1 2 3
Test
Test
Test
As long as American kids are hungry, I don’t want a penny going oversees. (After a 6 week review – 83% of USAID (grant) contracts cancelled and remaining 18% – approximately 1000 – moved to State Department to be managed).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MJ69enePb4
Much like Heracles battling the Hydra, we are about to discover that the United States Department of Redundancy Department has multiple hidden divisions and bureaus that will need to be disected seperately before two heads grow back where the one was cut off.
Good luck DOGE – although every time I see a Cybertruck, I question if Elon is the guy to have put in charge of the task.
Speaking of cyber trucks, one with Montana plates on it was hopelessly stuck, high centered in a sand wash while attempting to “turn around” (tresspass on marked property) on my private Black Hills acreage. It took a wrecker with a dual winch boom to get him unstuck, and bent the bumper and receiver (maybe frame too?) out of whack by about 4 inches on the truck, which the owner swore there was no way to cause damage because ” it’s rated to tow over 12,000 pounds ”
Hah, the ultimate off-road electric
4-wheeler, if by off-road you mean
gravel driveway.
JerryRigEverything posted a video on Youtube yesterday of ripping the hitch and bumper off his Cybertruck. While he intentionally did it as a test, owners have reported them falling off while towing. The steel hitch is bolted to the aluminum bumper (problem 1) which is glued to the truck’s body (problem 2). Cybertrucks will go down as some of the worst vehicles ever made because they’re so bad at everything.