Gun shops that sold weapons smuggled into Washington, DC, are being sued by the capital and Maryland

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three gun shops that sold nearly three dozen firearms to a man who smuggled the weapons in and around Washington, D.C., face a new lawsuit filed jointly Tuesday by the attorneys general of Maryland and the nation's capital.

At least nine of those weapons have now been found at crime scenes or on people wanted for violent crimes, said DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Many of the others are still missing.

“Our city is being inundated with illegal weapons,” he said. “All three stores ignored the warning signs.”

Washington, D.C., has struggled with gun violence in recent years. The nation's capital recorded its highest number of murders in more than 30 years last year, and more than 90% of them were committed with firearms, the lawsuit says.

“Many of us watch the news and wonder where all these guns are coming from,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Now we have part of the answer.”

In Washington, gun trafficking is often carried out by people who buy guns for others who are not legally allowed to own them, Schwalb said. About 95 percent of guns seized in Washington, D.C., which has strict gun laws, originally come from nearby Maryland or Virginia, Schwalb said. While some of those guns are stolen, most come from illegal sham sales, according to data on gun trafficking investigations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The lawsuit demands unspecified damages and the prevention of future bogus purchases through legal action.

The lawsuit is the first filed jointly and comes at a time when cities and states across the country are filing civil suits against gun shops, including in New Jersey, Minnesota, Chicago and Philadelphia. Kansas City also settled a lawsuit last year against a gun dealer who was accused of ignoring evidence of illegal gun sales.

Licensed gun dealers are working with the ATF to identify possible sham purchases, said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group. But he said warning signs aren't always obvious in busy stores because a shopper might encounter different employees on different days.

“The focus should be on the actions of the criminal, not on scapegoating retailers who do their best every day to prevent bogus purchases,” he said, citing a 2016 Justice Department survey of prison inmates that found relatively few of them had purchased firearms from retail stores.

The new lawsuit, filed with gun safety group Everytown Law, accuses the Maryland-based stores of failing to respond to warning signs such as bulk purchases and repeat purchases.

Two stores, Engage Armament LLC and Atlantic Guns, Inc., did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the third, United Gun Shop, declined to comment.

The three stores sold a total of nearly three dozen similar guns to Demetrius Minor over the course of seven months in 2021, the lawsuit says. Almost all were passed on to others, including people who are not legally allowed to purchase firearms, the lawsuit says. For example, one gun was found in a Washington, D.C. hotel room along with an illegal high-capacity magazine, and another was found in the home of a stabbing suspect, the lawsuit says.

Minor pleaded guilty to illegal arms trafficking last year as part of a settlement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. A lawyer representing Minor could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuit demands unspecified damages and a court order to prevent future bogus purchases.