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Bull's Eye Shooter SupplyBull's Eye Shooter Supply store in Tacoma, Washington gained notoriety following the three-week long rampage in the fall of 2002 which came to be known as the Beltway Sniper Attacks because they occurred near the circumferential Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) outside Washington, DC. While staying at a Bellingham, Washington homeless shelter, one of the convicted serial killers, John Allen Muhammad, trained at Bull's Eye's large shooting range and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo told investigators that he shoplifted the Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle, the civilian equivalent of the U.S. military's selective_fire M-16 assault rifle, at a range of 50 to over 100 yards from the Bull's Eye store, where it had arrived on July 2, 2002, and been put on display for customers to handle. The rifle was used by Muhammad and Malvo to kill 13 persons and wound several others, in an apparent effort to extort $10 million from the U.S. Government. After separate trials, in 2004 for 2 of the shootings, Muhammad received a death penalty sentence, and Malvo was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Virginia. Malvo plead guilty to another murder, and additional cases against both men are pending in several states. At the time of the attacks, the Bull's Eye complex was owned and managed by Brian Borgelt, a former Staff Sgt. with the U.S. Army Rangers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). In July, 2003, the ATF revoked his federal firearms license to own and operate the gun store. He transfered ownership to a friend, and subsequently, continued to own the building, and operate the adjacent shooting gallery also located in it. http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0,2061,565561,00.html On January 16, 2003, the Legal Action Project, on behalf of the families of many of the Beltway Sniper Attacks victims who were killed, including Hong Im Ballenger, "Sonny" Buchanan, Jr., Linda Franklin, Conrad Johnson, Sarah Ramos and James L. Premkumar Walekar, as well as two victims who survived the shooting, Rupinder "Benny" Oberoi and 13-year old Iran Brown, filed a civil lawsuit against Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, the gun dealer that supplied one of the guns used by the snipers, and Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine, the gun distributor and manufacturer which made the assault rifle with a laser scope which was used in the crime spree, as well as Muhammad and Malvo. Neither man would have been eligible to legally procure the assault weapon which were used to terrorize the public, as well as murder and maim numerous victims. (Muhammad, who had a record of domestic battery and Malvo, a minor, were each legally prohibited from purchasing firearms). The suit claimed that Bull's Eye Shooter Supply ran its gun store "in such a grossly negligent manner that scores of its guns routinely 'disappeared' from its store and it kept such shoddy records that it could not even account for the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the sniper shootings when asked by federal agents for records of sale for the weapon." It was alleged that the dealer could not account for hundreds of guns received from manufacturers in the years immediately proximate to the Sniper Attacks. It was also claimed that Bull's Eye continued to sell guns in the same irresponsible manner as before the sniper shootings even after Muhammad and Malvo were caught, and the source of their Assault rifle traced to the dealer. Bushmaster was included in the suit because it allegedly continued to utilize Bull's Eye as its dealer despite an awareness of Bull's Eye negligent practices. After losing several decisions as the case made its way through the courts in 2003 and 2004, Bull's Eye and Bushmaster contributed to an out-of-court US$2.5 million settlement. According to the Legal Center, "Bushmaster will also educate its dealers on safer business practices. The settlement is the first time a gun manufacturer has ever paid damages for negligence leading to criminal violence, and the largest settlement by a gun dealer ever." After the settlement was announced, WTOP, a radio station in Washington, DC reported that Sonia Wills, the mother of sniper victim Conrad Johnson, a Montgomery County, Maryland bus driver who was killed, said her family took part in the lawsuit more to send a message than to collect money from Bushmaster Firearms and Bull's Eye Shooter Supply. "I think a message was delivered that you should be responsible and accountable for the actions of irresponsible people when you make these guns and put them in their hands," she said. http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=333&sid=265409 The Legal Action Project is part of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, headed by James Scott Brady, formerly U.S. White House Press Secretary to U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan. James Brady was seriously wounded during an attempted assassination of the president in March, 1981. Permanently disabled as a result of the attack, Brady and his wife Sarah became leading advocates of gun control and other actions to reduce the amount of gun violence in the United States. http://www.bradycenter.org/
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