USA Today has a follow up on our story about the NY firefighter shooter.Around 1:40 p.m., New York State Police, Webster Police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives descended on the home where Dawn Nguyen and her mother, Dawn Welsher, were staying. Nguyen was taken out of the home in handcuffs.Pro-gun folks often point out that straw purchasers can easily claim that the guns were stolen. Well, in this case that didn't work. Also it wouldn't work for the frequent or "professional" straw purchasers. I mean, how many times can you reasonably expect the police to believe your guns were stolen.
Senior Investigator James Newell of the state police said Nguyen was charged with offering a false instrument for filing.
Nguyen is also facing federal charges for allegedly lying about the purchase of the semiautomatic .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, equipped with a combat-style flash suppressor, and the .12-gauge Mossberg shotgun used in Monday's slayings of two first responders and the wounding of three others. Nguyen is not connected to a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol also recovered.
U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr. said at a 4 p.m. ET press conference that Nguyen bought the guns on June 6, 2010, from a Gander Mountain store in Henrietta, south of Rochester. He said William Spengler Jr., a former neighbor in Webster who ignited an inferno and ambushed first responders before dawn Monday, picked out the guns and Nguyen bought them.
As as a convicted felon, Spengler was banned from owning guns. He served 17 years in state prison for killing his grandmother with a hammer in 1980. Nguyen lived next door to Spengler for about five years, in the house where he killed his grandmother.
"It is sometimes referred to acting as a 'straw purchaser' and that is exactly what today's complaint alleges," Hochul said.
Hochul indicated that in his rambling suicide note, Spengler revealed how he got the guns.
What's needed is a comprehensive plan of proper gun control, including licensing and registration. This would eliminate almost all straw purchasing.
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