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Weapon used in shootings bought legally Store in Wilkinsburg sold gun in 1982 Friday, March 03, 2000 By Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The gun police say Ronald Taylor used to shoot five people and hold a half-dozen others hostage during a three-hour rampage this week began its life as a routine sale at Braverman Arms Co., just blocks from the scene of the shootings.
Founded 42 years ago and run by a transplanted Massachusetts native who packs his own gun in an ankle holster, Braverman's has been caught up in public debate over gun control in the past. Last year, New York congressman, now senator, Charles Schumer included a Wilkinsburg store -- later identified as Braverman's -- as one of 140 "high crime retail dealers" to which large numbers of guns from crime scenes were later traced.
The report did not take into account the sheer volume of guns sold at the various stores, something Buddy Savage, Braverman's owner, wouldn't pin down other than to take a deep breath and say, emphatically, "thousands."
The six-shot, .22-caliber Rohm RG-14 revolver believed to be the weapon used in the shootings by the onetime mental patient was first sold to a relative, according to Savage. Everett Taylor was 67 and working as a security guard when he paid $75 for the low-end weapon in 1982, said Savage.
Passed from one family member to another, the gun was entirely legal until Wednesday, when, according to police, Ronald Taylor lashed out at the world, railed against white people and traveled through Wilkinsburg shooting five men, killing three.
"I've dreaded the fact something like this could happen because of the sheer volume we sell," Savage said yesterday. "Do I feel responsible? No. I sympathize."
Both Savage and Brandt Schenken, head of gun enforcement for the Pittsburgh office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, say part of the reason crime guns are being traced to Braverman's is a changing neighborhood.
"The demographics have changed from being the city of churches to what it is now," Schenken said. What Wilkinsburg is now is a hard-pressed town that has had to deal with gang violence and high poverty, a legacy of the economic recession of the 1980s.
Last year, the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh indicted a man on charges of trafficking in weapons obtained through "straw" buyers -- customers with clean records who buy the guns, then pass them along to the real buyers.
According to Schenken, Wilkinsburg is the western end of a fertile crescent of illegal gun trafficking through straw buyers that stretches into Westmoreland County and is the target of a widespread criminal investigation the federal government hopes will crack down on illegal gun traffic.
Savage yesterday said his store's major problem is straw purchasers who intend to pass the weapons along to convicted felons, who are forbidden by law to own guns.
He estimates that a straw purchaser tries to buy a gun at his store at least 10 times a week.
"One of the biggest problems is stupid women," he said. "They will get hooked up with this creep and buy for him."
While he can sell to anyone without a record, Savage said he and staff now sometimes insist on running a background check on both the buyer and any companion.
"I don't go by the law," Savage said. "I go by my own tolerance of how I'm going to sleep at night."
The ATF's Schenken concurred.
"If they're suspicious of a sale, they are the type that will say, 'Nope, sorry, can't sell you a gun,' " he said.
Jim Kessler, policy director for Schumer, said yesterday that the figures on Braverman's suggest high numbers of straw purchasers. Of 4,954 federally licensed firearms dealers in Pennsylvania, Braverman's was one of six, and the only one in the state's west, to have 50 or more handguns recovered at crime scenes traced back to it as the point of sale in 1998.
Kessler said 61 guns were traced to Braverman's in 1998, 71 in 1997 and 39 in 1996. Of the 171 guns traced to Braverman over the three-year period, Kessler said, only 37 were found in the possession of the original purchaser when a crime was committed.
"When you put the facts together ... it's a very strong indication that there is gun traffic emanating from that store. That is not to say the store is responsible," Kessler said.
Savage said that, in fact, he has gone out of his way to try to avoid selling in any instance he thought a gun buyer might be a problem.
Since Wilkinsburg fell on difficult times, changing the clientele that once bought mostly sporting goods from Savage, he has considered moving the store.
"I'm 64," Savage said. "I don't think I want to start again. There are many locales now that don't want a gun shop to locate there. I'd like to move. I don't know where I would want to go."
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