Badger Arms has been under assault by the politicians and the media in Milwaukee since 2000. They opened around 1980 in an area of Milwaukee that was primarily industrial, but on a main drag. Then the Milwaukee ghetto grew, and grew closer to them. They started getting a lot of gang-bangers coming in, and started getting a lot of straw party buyers.
I never liked the owners, but I know what they did to help the police and ATF catch the bad guys, and they did more than any store I know of. They kept binoculars at every window, and would watch for straw sales taking place in the parking lot, and would call police if they saw them. They opened their books to the ATF and cops anytime they were asked. They set up their cameras so that they could provide law enforcement with crystal clear videos of any criminals trying to buy guns. They did everything they could. They also made some mistakes, but no more than any other gun stores.
Nevertheless, the media hounded them because they were the number one store in the country for gun traces. The media made it sound like it was for guns traced to crimes, but that's no so. The Milwaukee PD is one of very few departments in the country that runs traces on every single gun officers come across, even if it's a gun in the closet of an old guy who passed away. So, you've got every gun the cops touch being traced, plus being the closest of the two remaining gun stores in Milwaukee county being on the edge of the ghetto. (There were once 18 gun stores in the city, and many more in the county, but the city fathers drove all of them out except for these last two...for now).
This doesn't surprise me at all, and I would bet money that it was a condition the politicians gave them in order to keep operating the business. They've now been forced to become a private club. Only members can shoot there or buy guns. Next stop is a going out of business sale.
The gang bangers are now going to my friend's store 40 blocks west. I wonder how long it will be before they try to close him down?
