“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is accusing Fleet Farm of violating state law when the retailer allegedly sold firearms to ‘straw purchasers,’ according to newly filed court documents,” ABC affiliate KSTP Eyewitness News reported Monday. “Defendants knew or had reason to know, based on the circumstances of the sales and the information known to Defendants, that straw purchasers were not purchasing for themselves and were buying firearms for others,” Ellison charged, accusing the Midwest retail chain “of violating the Minnesota Gun Control Act.”
“A citizen can purchase traditional rifles and shotguns without a permit. Purchase of a handgun, however, requires a valid permit that will include a criminal background check. Likewise, the purchase or transfer of a pistol or a semi-automatic military-style assault weapon will require completing a purchase/transfer permit,” John Mascolo, Esq. of FindLaw writes. “Applicants for a gun permit in Minnesota must undergo a criminal background check through the Minnesota Crime Information System and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System or NICS. Those seeking to purchase a firearm may seek a permit from their local police chief or county sheriff.”
Is Ellison saying Fleet Farm, which as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) is routinely audited by an ATF notorious for “zero tolerance” revocations over innocuous paperwork flubs, transferred guns without going through the process? No? Then what’s his beef?
“It’s alleged Fleet Farm sold 13 guns during a 12-month period to a straw purchaser who later pleaded guilty to helping straw purchase nearly 100 firearms,” KSTP explains. “The lawsuit mentions specific firearms used in the Truck Park Bar shooting in October 2021 that left one person dead and another 14 injured.”
And that is Fleet Farm’s fault…how? Does Minnesota law limit how many firearms purchases a citizen can make in a year? It does not.
Curiously, one of the “commonsense gun safety laws” the prohibitionists have tried to enact everywhere, (in Everytown!), is a “one-gun-a-month” law. They do things incrementally, and many would prefer “no-guns-a-month,” but as an aside, a U.S. District judge just held that California’s purchase limitation edict “did not fit within the nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.”
So, Ellison is running afoul of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), of Bruen, and more to the point, of the clear Second Amendment proscription that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” And his excuse for going after Fleet Farm is that its retail employees can’t do the impossible and read the hearts and minds of customers, and that it is therefore responsible for not just their criminal actions, but for the subsequent actions of those they deal with.
In truth, he just wants to use the virtually unlimited resources of the state to rob a victim with deep pockets blind through lawfare and shut all gun dealers down, which is par for the course with this character.
When he was in Congress, he was part of a group of Democrat gun prohibitionists who staged a sit-in, which “shut down the House’s legislative work” to demand more citizen disarmament. He and the two were clearly and defiantly obstructing and impeding official proceedings, a charge used to throw J6 Capitol protestors into the federal gulag.
Ellison is a former leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, co-founded by Bernie Sanders. And the Caucus (with Ellison specifically lauded) maintains “ties” with the Communist Party USA and “close ties” with another “progressive” group, the Democratic Socialists of America, the domestic arm of Socialist International.
The DSA devoted a page on their website (until they took it down to try to hide it—this link goes to the Internet Archive record, which may load slowly but they can’t erase) to hymns glorifying their “struggle.” The following example should be of special interest, since the people they’re talking about are pretty much you and me:
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie, And when the revolution comes, We’ll kill you all with knives and guns, Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie
That’s what he represents. And this is what Fleet Farm does:
“Fleet Farm has been serving hardworking families since 1955. We’re built on a foundation of Midwestern values. You could say we’re a lot like our customers. We believe in honoring tradition, taking pride in our work and doing what’s right.”
It’s all part of a wider movement to ban not just guns (Ellison doesn’t like the First Amendment any better than he does the second), but to demonize and exclude those with traditional American values. Look at the government and media push going on before the upcoming November elections to conflate rejection of collectivism, immorality, and treason with “white rural rage,” for the DOJ/FBI to portray those Americans as “the greatest threat,” and to condemn “Christian Nationalists” as theocratic Nazis for believing rights are “endowed by our Creator” instead of privileges to be portioned out or withheld by the state.
There’s no room in Keith Ellison’s America for such outcasts. That’s why they’re so desperate to disarm us. And that’s why the government monopoly of violence subversives masquerading as “gun safety advocates” at Giffords proclaimed “We are proud to endorse Keith Ellison for attorney general.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
