Baltimore Gunsmith has been an institution on Broadway since the turn of the century, when Fells Point was a rough-and-tumble hangout for longshoremen who crowded its cobblestone streets and rowdy pubs.
The shop still beckons with a prominent sign in the shape of a Colt revolver. "Since 1904, taking care of all your shooting needs," its promotional literature reads.
But federal authorities want to close the store. They accuse the owners of saturating city streets with weapons by selling to people they know will hand over the guns to criminals -- an illegal act called a "straw purchase."
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms plans to conduct a rarely used administrative hearing at which they could revoke the store's license to sell firearms.
The store's lawyer, Richard M. Karceski, said he does not have much hope of winning. "It sounds like a stacked deck to me," he said.
While law enforcement officials are privately heralding the move to cut off what they term the biggest source of firearms used in city crimes, the expected hearing is just the latest attempt by authorities to shutter Baltimore Gunsmith.
Federal studies show that more than 1,000 guns -- 20 percent of the firearms seized in city crimes over the past nine years -- were bought at Baltimore Gunsmith. But repeated investigations of the former owner, Anthony A. DiMartino, 69, and his son and current owner, Larry F. DiMartino, 37, have produced few tangible results.
A two-year criminal investigation in which undercover federal agents tried to catch the owners conducting illegal firearms transactions spent $18,000 in taxpayer money buying weapons but failed to net any charges.
The U.S. attorney's office refused in 1997 to prosecute what ATF believed was its strongest case, and agents turned to the Maryland attorney general's office. But the bureau's best evidence -- a secretly taped recording in which an undercover agent tried to show that the shop owner knew a handgun was destined for a convicted murderer -- was inadmissible in a state courtroom. A jury acquitted Anthony DiMartino.
Federal officials Tuesday delayed the license revocation hearing, saying a witness was not available. ATF spokesman Michael Campbell said a new date will be worked out between officials and Baltimore Gunsmith. The postponement, Campbell said, "was done with a great deal of reluctance."
'A horrendous picture'
Baltimore police, who have no authority over licensing, are frustrated.
"We just trace the guns back to the crimes and add up the bodies, and before you know it, you've got quite a horrendous picture," said Detective Edward Bochniak, a member of Baltimore's Violent Crimes Task Force.
Authorities targeting the gun sales mostly use the straw purchase law, which makes it illegal to transfer a weapon without a state police background check of the buyer.
Convicted felons commonly recruit people with clean records to buy guns for them, which ATF says is the way most firearms used in crimes end up on city streets.
But building a case against a gun dealer is difficult. Authorities have to prove that the dealer knew the illegal transaction was going to take place when the weapon was sold. Gun shop owners call the law unfair because it holds them responsible for what happens to a gun after it legally leaves their shop.
The DiMartinos have long shunned the media, and they declined to comment for this article. They responded to a protest by Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse four years ago by hanging a sign on the door denying culpability in violence that has made Baltimore the fourth-deadliest city in the nation: "It's the criminals, stupid!"
Their lawyer, Karceski, said his clients fulfill all the legal requirements in selling guns, and he believes the hearing is retribution for the not guilty verdict in 1997.
"I have a deep concern that there may be some lack of fairness," he said. "I don't believe that it is independent, in that the people who grant the license will decide whether it will be taken away. This is retaliatory action that is being taken by the federal government."
Karceski said federal agents are grasping for reasons to shut down his client. "If this shop is as bad as they say it must be, why have they let it be open all these years?" he said.
Campbell said Baltimore Gunsmith is being targeted because of the frequency that straw purchases are traced to the store. He said the store's license was renewed over the years to avoid a conflict with ongoing criminal investigations.
The ATF spokesman said his Baltimore office has three or four license revocation hearings each year. Licensees include not only gun stores, but pawn shops, independent dealers, trade show sponsors and collectors.
Officials were unable to say how many rulings went against licensees, but Campbell said the agents try to be fair, as owners can appeal revocations to an administrative law judge and the store could remain open during that process.
Baltimore Gunsmith backers, who include former city police Lt. James Watkins, who testified as a character witness, and an inner-city pastor, don't believe federal authorities.
"The only thing that I can say is that when I dealt with him, he was fair to me," said Rev. Tommie Jenkins, pastor of St. John's Christian Community Church in the 1200 block of E. Lanvale St. "I know him as a man of genuine character."
Jenkins, who often ministers to families stricken by street violence, said he has bought numerous shotguns and handguns at Baltimore Gunsmith over the past 17 years for hunting.
"I don't think the guns are coming from the gun shops," the pastor said. "They are coming from the black market. People will get their guns elsewhere and the killing goes on."
Straw purchasing
The issue of straw purchases and Baltimore Gunsmith emerged in 1991, when a mother who managed a jewelry counter at a local department store walked into the shop and bought $6,000 worth of high-powered handguns, including an Israeli-made Desert Eagle and a laser-sighted pistol.
The woman, who was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony, gave the weapons to Nathaniel Dawson Jr., who picked out the guns at the counter and gave her the cash to pay for them.
Dawson is serving four life sentences in federal prison, convicted of being a drug kingpin responsible for two murders, including the 1993 slaying of Tauris Johnson, a 10-year-old boy caught in a shootout between two rival drug lords.
That year, another woman spent $5,274 on eight guns, including a Cobray Street Sweeper 12-gauge shotgun, and gave them to Anthony Ayeni Jones, a notorious East Baltimore drug dealer who is serving life in prison. His drug organization has been linked to more than a dozen killings.
ATF agents tried to bring a criminal case against the store in the early 1990s, sending in undercover agents who bought guns and tried to prove that the owners knew the weapons were destined for felons.
Top officials at the U.S. attorney's office said the case predated their tenure and were unable to comment on the investigation or why it was not chosen for prosecution.
In 1997, an undercover ATF agent posing as a waitress bought a $195 Beretta pistol. In secretly tape-recorded conversations, she tried to make it clear to Anthony DiMartino that she was buying the gun at the behest of a convicted murderer.
But federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the case. U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia would not comment on specifics, but said decisions are made every day on which jurisdiction might be appropriate for a case.
ATF agents found help with the state attorney general's office.
"We came in because they couldn't find a prosecutor," said Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Henneman, chief of criminal investigations. Anthony DiMartino was charged with selling a gun to "a person that he knew was convicted of a crime of violence."
But when the case went to trial in February 1998, prosecutors were unable to persuade the jury. Their best evidence, the wiretap, could not be used in state court because Maryland allows secret recording by police only in cases involving murder, drugs or gambling.
"The good news was that we agreed to try the case," Henneman said. "The bad news was we could not use the tapes. It was a severe handicap. We took it anyway, knowing it was a suicide mission."
Anthony DiMartino was acquitted.
The single conviction
The only person the state has convicted under the straw purchase law is Richard Sherman, 37, who bought three guns at Baltimore Gunsmith and sold two of them to east-side drug dealers.
One of the dealers, Sherman told police, wanted to "shoot this little kid because the kid was in the way." Another gun was used in June to shoot at three police officers who were investigating a series of rapes in West Baltimore.
Authorities have several other cases in the works.
Tia Branch, 23, was charged with buying a gun at Baltimore Gunsmith in March 1998 and giving it to a drug dealer the next day. Police said the gun was used in a shootout seven months later in which a 16-year-old was wounded.
Police said the transaction is typical of the delicate dance with the straw purchase law played out between dealers and buyers.
They said Branch agreed to buy a .45-caliber H&K; semiautomatic handgun for a man named Steve in exchange for $200. Police said both walked into Baltimore Gunsmith on March 11, 1998, and Steve left after a few minutes. Branch then walked out and talked to Steve. She was "then instructed to enter the store and pick out the weapon located to the far right of the glass showcase on the top shelf," a police report says.
She paid a deposit on the gun and filled out the required forms. On March 28, Branch returned to the store, paid the balance and picked up her weapon. Steve told her to leave the gun in her home. "Shortly thereafter, Steve returned and took possession of the weapon," the report says. "Branch stated that she never saw the gun at all after that day."
Police said that on Oct. 19, Marvin L. Buckson and Jerryl Brown shot it out at East Lanvale Street and Rutland Avenue, around the corner from Branch's rowhouse. Both were wounded and each was charged with assault. One of the guns used was the .45-caliber H&K.; Branch was charged with conducting a straw purchase. Cases against the three are pending.
Bochniak said it should have been obvious that a straw purchase was being conducted, and that the gun dealer is responsible for stopping the sale or notifying authorities.
But Karceski said his client's store should not be singled out.
"There is violent crime in big cities, and most of it comes from firearms," he said. "It doesn't mean there is an intent on the owners' part to sell to criminals."
Pub Date: 3/26/99