By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Four men have been charged following a lengthy undercover investigation into illegal firearms sales at gun shows including those held in Centralia, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced this morning.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been looking into violations in which persons operate as though they are only selling guns from their private collections – which is legal – but actually are engaged in the business of buying and selling firearms for profit – something that requires a federal firearms dealer license, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Washington.
A federal grand jury late last week indicted the men in three separate cases for unlawful dealing in firearms, which included 68-year-old Olympia resident David Devenny, who was arrested last November after allegedly selling a gun to a convicted felon.
Those indicted are Devenny, Roy Alloway, 56, of Belfair, Kenneth Gussoni, 55, of Bremerton, and Mark Skiles, 46, of Belfair, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office. None had current federal firearms dealer licenses, according to the news release.
Gussoni is also charged with possessing an illegal silencer and a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Devenny is additionally charged with two counts of sale of a firearm to a prohibited person.
The Kitsap Sun reports Alloway is a retired Bremerton police officer who never thought he was breaking the law.
“Gun shows are legal, but funneling illegal gun sales through gun shows is not,” U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said in a printed statement. “Illegal gun sales allow guns to get in the wrong hands and blocks our ability to trace guns used in violent crimes. These defendants knew better, but put their profit ahead of the safety of the community.”
Devenny allegedly sold a gun at a Puyallup gun show that was used a week later to kill Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween 2009. He reportedly commented to the undercover agent, he didn’t know who he sold it to because he did not keep records.
When a federal firearms licensed dealer sells a weapon, they are required to conduct a background check and fill out certain forms. The information helps law enforcement trace guns which are subsequently used in crimes, according to the news release.
Private sellers at gun shows do not have to fill out those forms.
The indictment reveals the men were purchasing hundreds of guns from licensed dealers and selling them them at gun shows in Monroe, Puyallup and Centralia, according to the news release. Undercover agents were among the buyers as early as 2009.
Skiles and Gussoni, for example, allegedly bought 117 firearms in 2009 and 2010 and sold to federal agents at six different gun shows, according to the news release.
In the instances described in court documents, the guns obtained by the seller were held for only days or weeks, never becoming part of any “collection”, according to the news release.
During the investigation, 229 guns were seized, including three machine guns. Agents also confiscated military-grade explosives, grenades, a silencer and tear gas pen guns.
The defendants have been summoned to appear for arraignment in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on May 9.
•••
Read about David Devenny’s arrest in November, here