It was a perfect tool for killing, this powerful, semiautomatic, Austrian pistol.
Stamped as No. PV309US, it moved through Baltimore for six months, making a few appearances police know of: an illegal sale, a drive-by shooting, a murder.
The gun, a .40-caliber Glock Model 23, is one of hundreds federal and city officials have traced to Carroll L. Brown, a 30-year-old former postal worker and gun dealer who, using personal contacts and classified ads in The Sun, illegally sold 335 high-powered weapons from April to December last year.
Brown is serving a 21-month sentence at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn., but police assume that most of the guns he sold are still on the streets.
In Baltimore's criminal world, high-tech weapons such as No. PV309US, are common. So are assault rifles, bulletproof vests, laser sights and machine pistols.
"Saturday night specials aren't our problem anymore," said city prosecutor H. Jerome Briscoe. "No self-respecting criminal would have a Saturday night special."
Consequently, the rapid pop-pop-pop of semiautomatic gunfire echoes throughout the city's streets as gunmen wage brief, private wars.
"Now, with these automatic weapons, they're basically spraying areas," said Mr. Briscoe, who prosecuted the murder in which No. PV309US was used. "We're finding a lot more innocent victims being caught, houses being sprayed. The violence is escalating as high-tech meets the drug dealers."
Brown indirectly helped give the dealers access to that high-powered weaponry. Before his arrest and the conviction for violating federal gun laws that sent him to prison, he was one of about 264,000 federally licensed gun dealers. About 340 are in Maryland, state police said. State officials also said there are about 1 million registered guns in Maryland and perhaps another 1 million unregistered.
Described by his attorney as a nice, soft-spoken family man, Brown, who declined a request for an interview, liked guns and had his own private collection.
"He seemed like a pretty decent guy to me," attorney M. Gordon Tayback said of his client. "I just think he found a ready source of cash but wasn't prepared to be businessman."
In June 1989, Brown got a federal license to sell guns. He filled out the requisite forms, answered the questions about his background and read the packet of rules and regulations given each licensee. He had planned to run a gun shop in the 1000 block of Reisterstown Road. The shop failed.
And Brown took another tack.
Federal court records show that guns started arriving at his home in April 1990. At first, the shipments were few, but as the year progressed, the deliveries became more frequent.
Sales were brisk, prices reasonable.
Having no overhead, he sold his weapons for about $100 above wholesale. But by selling them out of his house, he was breaking the law.
Federal authorities believe that Brown, who has a wife and three children, seized on gun dealing to pad his $1,500-a-month take-home pay from the U.S. Postal Service.
Mr. Tayback agrees. "He saw this as an opportunity to supplement his income, to provide for his family's basic needs," he said. By September 1990, Brown was advertising in The Sun.
John E. Kennedy, who would sign for No. PV309US's entry into Baltimore, saw one of those ads. Right there in the Sunday classifieds, guns for sale. Good guns. Not cheap, low-caliber pop guns but powerful, well-made, top-of-the-line semiautomatics. Kennedy, a felon, had no business buying guns. It was against the law for him to possess a firearm. So he stepped outside the law and right up to Brown.
"At the time, I wasn't supposed to legally own a gun, and he said: 'That's all right. Just sign here. It doesn't go anywhere. It stays with me,' " Kennedy said during a recent Baltimore Circuit Court murder trial. "[The gun] was still wrapped up, just like it was brand new."
Yet Brown apparently had nagging concerns about the law. As required, he made Kennedy sign for the semiautomatic 10mm Auto Ordnance pistol. Brown also was supposed to tell state police about the intended sale and wait seven days before completing it. None of that happened. Kennedy just signed his name, put down $380 and left.
After that purchase, Kennedy referred his friends to Brown.
Even without word-of-mouth endorsements, the advertisement in The Sun touted Brown's wares.
In October, barely a day passed without an United Postal Service delivery to Brown's home. During one eight-day period, 45 weapons arrived C0D: 10 on Oct. 10, nine on Oct. 15, 11 on Oct. 16, 15 on Oct. 17. Each time, Brown paid cash.
On Oct. 18, Kennedy was again at Brown's Northwest Baltimore home, this time to sign for some .357-caliber handguns, 9mm pistols and three .40-caliber Glocks, among them No. PV309US.
The guns weren't for Kennedy. They were for a 19-year-old. But Brown didn't want the young man to sign for them. The law forbids selling guns to anyone under 21.
So Kennedy signed. However, because he didn't know what the young man would do with the weapons, Kennedy signed a false name, John Johnson. He didn't want his name on the paper trail.
No. PV309US was now on the street.
Eight days later, city police arrested a man wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an unregistered Astra .380-caliber pistol. Traces on both items led to a firearms dealer in Rochester, N.Y. The company had shipped 15 guns to Brown. None was registered with the state police.
Suddenly, it seemed weapons shipped to Brown were turning up everywhere: a Cobray 9mm pistol recovered Nov. 16; a Taurus .38-caliber revolver, another Cobray 9mm and a Glock 9mm recovered Nov. 21; an Excam 9mm recovered Nov. 24; another Cobray 9mm recovered Nov. 28; a Glock 9mm recovered Nov. 30.
Still, the UPS trucks pulled up to Brown's door, and the guns kept flowing into Baltimore.
By early December, federal agents prepared to stop Brown.
An agent in Virginia called in response to the newspaper ads. On Dec. 13, he met Brown in a Baltimore parking lot and bought a 9mm Glock pistol for $470. At Brown's request, the agent listed a false Baltimore address.
A week later, at another prearranged buy, Brown was arrested. At his home, agents found 14 guns, including a 9mm pistol with a laser sight.
On March 7, 1991, Brown pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one of 16 charges on which he had been indicted. Thirty-four days later, in a wild West Baltimore shootout, No. PV309US was used to kill Sheldean Simon, a 23-year-old rapper in a group named Murder Inc.
Through much of March and into April 1991, Mr. Simon and Ronnie Alexander Hunt, a West Baltimore drug dealer, had circled each other like wary fighters. Theirs was not a beef over drugs or turf. Respect was their concern and, on the periphery, a woman. They had staring matches in corner stores. Mr. Simon and his closest buddies took to wearing bulletproof vests.
The two men had their final meeting April 10. At 2:15 a.m., in the first block of North Kossuth Street, Hunt's crew took cover behind parked cars and unleashed a hailstorm of fire as Mr. Simon, armed with two 9mm pistols, made his stand on his mother's front lawn.
More than 70 bullets whizzed through the night, slamming into cars and houses. Pistols spat out dozens of shell casings. When it was over, Mr. Simon, hit in the leg and head, lay dying. He had fired one shot.
Forty-four of the bullets used during the brief gunbattle, including the two that killed Mr. Simon, came from No. PV309US.
Six days later, police arrested Hunt, 23, and his cousin Harry Johnson III, 20. They had the gun. Both were later charged and convicted of first-degree murder. In early November, Hunt was RTC sentenced to life plus 20 years, Johnson to life with all but 15 years suspended.
Of the three .40-caliber Glocks that ended up in Hunt's hands, only one has been recovered. Of the 335 guns Brown sold, perhaps 300 are still on the streets.
In Washington, guns Brown sold have been used in several shootings. In New York City, two murders, possibly three, have been traced to guns he sold.
"I just think he found a very lucrative market. He had a quick profit," said an official familiar with Brown's case. "I don't know if he really considered the consequences of his actions."
"He's always denied very vehemently being involved with any of these drug dealers," Mr. Tayback said, adding that Brown is now "concerned about the possible illegal use of the weapons."
Detective Harry Edgerton, who investigated the murder of Mr. Simon, has little use for after-the-fact concern. His concern is more immediate.
"As we speak, people who are out there right now, who are killed or wounded, could be the responsibility of Carroll Brown," he said. "In the end, all this gun stuff comes down to one guy who says: 'I don't want to follow the rules.' "