Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on August 07, 2009, 11:25:41 PM
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So who's next now? Midway? Brownell's? Milt Sparks? In the old analogy of, "Would you sue the car manufacturer for the crimes of a drunk driver?" This is like, "Would you sue the manufacturer of the radio in the car driven by the drunk driver?"
Funny how they had to state he sold an "empty" magazine.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_health_club_shooting_dealer_3
Wis. dealer sold gun extras to health club shooter
By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press Writer Todd Richmond, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 44 mins ago
MADISON, Wis. – An online weapons dealer who sold a gun or accessories to three mass killers, including a man who opened fire at a Pittsburgh-area health club this week, said Friday that any of the shooters could have just as easily found what they wanted at a Wal-Mart or another store.
Eric Thompson, whose company TGSCOM Inc. last year sold an empty Glock 9 mm magazine and magazine loading apparatus to George Sodini, the man who shot up a Collier Township, Pa., health club on Tuesday, said the sale was legal and his company did nothing wrong.
"The firearms industry and firearms dealers are lambasted by the media and by politicians all the time and very often nobody stands up and says 'hey, we didn't do anything wrong,'" Thompson said. "I'm ... being penalized by doing a good job and employing a lot of people and selling sporting goods ... I'm not some backwoods guy just making to look a buck off of tragedy."
Thompson's company, which is based in Green Bay and employs about 40 people, also sold a gun or accessories to the shooters in the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University attacks.
Seung-Hui Cho used a .22-caliber handgun bought from TGSCOM in his attack at Virginia Tech in April 2007, in which 32 people were killed. Stephen Kazmierczak, who killed five people in an NIU classroom before killing himself in February 2008, bought two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster through a TGSCOM site.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms doesn't keep statistics on online gun sales, but Thompson said online sales are taking business away from stores. Thompson declined to say how much the company made in sales last year, but said it was "in the millions of dollars."
"It's just the nature of the business," he said. "We just happen to be on the forefront in this industry."
Thompson visited the Virginia Tech campus after the attack to support a local chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. And after the NIU attack, he said the Web site Kazmierczak visited saw a spike in traffic.
Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was shot and wounded at Virginia Tech, said Thompson "needs to have some sort of social responsibility."
"I take issue on the basic principle that he's selling something that doesn't have a legitimate use outside of stalking and killing people," Goddard, of Richmond, Va., said.
It was not immediately clear if Sodini used the TGSCOM-bought accessories during his attack. Sodini, 48, fatally shot himself after opening fire on a weekly Latin dance aerobics class.
Federal law prevents the public from purchasing a handgun in any state but their own. People can purchase long guns, such as rifles, in border states. Firearms dealers, however, can transfer weapons to one another across state lines.
Online dealers often offer a larger selection of guns than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Someone who wants a gun from an online site must first find a licensed firearms dealer in their home state who will receive it and conduct the proper background checks. The local dealers earn a fee for processing paperwork and conducting background checks.
Thompson said attacks like Tuesday's underscore the need for people to protect themselves because police can't respond in time to crises, he said.
"This story should be about the victims and the tragedy and how to prevent things like this in the future," Thompson said.
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My wife told me about this earlier this evening, and in the context of my wanting to get an FFL. She was trying to support her argument that we'd wind up in some kind of trouble because I might sell to a criminal.
I thought about this story for a few seconds. There are roughly 70,000 FFL's in the country. What are the odds that three perpetrators of the most recent shootings all bought their guns or an accessory from the same online dealer? The odds have to be in the billions.
My guess is that Kazmierczak bought from Thompson because Cho did, and Sodini bought from Thompson because the first two did.
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Is TGSCOM a parent of something I might recognize? Midway, Brownells, Ammoman, Cabelas.... something that could account for selling magazines to large percentages of the "afficionado" gun owning population?
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Wow! So wouldn't it also be newsworthy if they had each purchased a food item from a place called McDonald's?
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Is TGSCOM a parent of something I might recognize? Midway, Brownells, Ammoman, Cabelas.... something that could account for selling magazines to large percentages of the "afficionado" gun owning population?
Nope, they're not a parent of anybody that you named. They sell under a couple of different web domains from what I gather, TopGlock.com being one of them and TheGunSource.com being the other.
If you want a Glock magazine there's really no better source. They turn up on the 1st page of a Google search for 'glock magazine' too which is probably why these nutters have used them.
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I'm #1 on Google for "glock dealers," but they've never contacted me. (Just kidding about the contact, but not about the Google ranking).
TGSCOM has online stores that are small compared to Impact Guns, Able Ammo, Bud's and some of the others. I think it's more than coincidence that all three shooters bought from the place. It had to be part of the copycat line of bizarre thinking.
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Using Bing, their stores TopGlock.com and GlockWorld.com came up second and fifth for "glock magazine" and first and third for "glock accessories." I think it could easily be coincidental. Also, if he was going to try to make a bold statement by killing some people, why set himself up to be compared to someone else who already outdid him?
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Didn't all these people also use gym bags to conceal their weapons to bring them inside?.....why isn't the press going after gym bag manufacturers?.... ???
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did they all drive fords?
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Oh dear god...they all wore pants...didn't they?
Those darn pants wearing hooligans are causing riots I tells ya.
If we all didn't have to wear pants, then the world would be a safer place.
I'm all for wearing kilts.
The sad thing is, that's about the mentality of the anti-gun crowd.
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crt360, bing has about 5%-7% of the share of search engine traffic right now. Google has over 80%.
I just really think that the second shooters bought from the same place for some twisted reason. I'd be anxious to find out if the police reports indicate any reason why they chose TopGlock or GlockWorld.
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Oh dear god...they all wore pants...didn't they?
Those darn pants wearing hooligans are causing riots I tells ya.
Yep, and not only that, they've all eaten French fries. That proves it.
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Yep, and not only that, they've all eaten French fries. That proves it.
I bet they even used to breathe air!
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It was not immediately clear if Sodini used the TGSCOM-bought accessories during his attack.
So they don't even know if he had used the product in the attack and yet they are already calling on suing them? And how do they know so fast where they had bought these things?
Yep, and not only that, they've all eaten French fries. That proves it.
I really hope that some day one of these people actually tries to sue one of those companies, like McDonalds or some shoe or car manufacturer, just to shoe how ridiculous of a claim all the others are trying to make.
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it makes sense. their are already instances of laws banning or regulating accesiories, like magizines. so why wouldn't the anti's target the makers and sellers of them too? just like the guns.
magazine loading apparatus
second, how does the press manage to make ANYTHING to do with guns sound so evil? even something so mundane as a mag loader.
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crt360, bing has about 5%-7% of the share of search engine traffic right now. Google has over 80%.
I just really think that the second shooters bought from the same place for some twisted reason. I'd be anxious to find out if the police reports indicate any reason why they chose TopGlock or GlockWorld.
I should have tried Google. I now have. Topglock.com is number one on Google for "glock accessories". Topglock.com and glockworld.com are fourth and fifth for "glock magazines". Not much different than the Bing results.
If they all bought all of their guns, ammo and accessories at the same place, it would be easier for me to make the connection. This guy bought one glock magazine and a four dollar glock mag loader (which also brings up topglock.com as the number one result in a Google search) from the place. I've seen enough to not dismiss the plans of a twisted mind, but this just seems too random. I can't even remember all of the different places I've bought magazines, not to mention guns, ammo and other gun stuff. If I owned a Glock, it's quite likely that I, too, would have ordered something from one of TGSCOM's online stores.
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"I take issue on the basic principle that he's selling something that doesn't have a legitimate use outside of stalking and killing people," Goddard, of Richmond, Va., said.
After all this time, and he's still mad with grief.