Two men accused of buying handguns at a local gun show did not exploit the so-called “gun show loophole” when doing so, according to a West Virginia State Trooper.
Neither did the seller of the guns.
Trooper D.W. Satterfield arrested Curtis and Kareem Neal on Saturday after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives watched the two purchase firearms at the Morgantown Gun Show at Mylan Park, he said.
The two are both felons with convictions in New Jersey and not allowed to own firearms, according to a criminal complaint. Satterfield couldn’t say why the ATF agents were watching the men only that they were “known for sure.”
The person who sold the two handguns to the Neals did nothing wrong, Satterfield said, as it was a private sale.
Gun vendors are required to do background checks before selling to a customer, but West Virginia law allows individuals to sell firearms between each other with no background check or paperwork required.
The sale was a private transaction that just happened to be at a gun show, Satterfield said.
West Virginia has weak gun laws, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The center gives the state — which had the ninth most gun deaths in the nation in 2017 at 18.6 per 100,000 people — an F rating. West Virginia also ranked second in crime-gun exportation.
Guns & Ammo rated West Virginia the 15th most gun friendly state in the country in 2019.
Guns do not need to be registered, no license to own firearms is required and no permit to carry a concealed firearm is required, according to the National Rifle Association.
Should a gun owner obtain a West Virginia concealed carry permit, 37 states recognize it, according to the Office of the West Virginia Attorney General.
The Neals were pulled over on Chaplin Road about 20 minutes after the ATF agents saw them purchase the guns, a criminal complaint said.
Satterfield explained the decision to pull them over was made for safety reasons. The two definitely had weapons and it’s a lot easier to control the situation at a traffic stop rather than at a gun show with lots of armed people, he said.
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