Group’s report highlights how guns in the US get from legitimate stores to crime scenes

Guns purchased at Academy Sports chain found in crimes across major cities, report reveals

A shooting in Boston. A carjacking in Washington, D.C. A robbery in New York. Each crime was committed with a firearm that originated hundreds of miles away in the South before being trafficked northward to cities with stringent gun laws, according to a new report by Everytown for Gun Safety.

The report traces more than 250 guns purchased over a three-year period from nearly two dozen Academy Sports + Outdoors stores that eventually made their way into criminal hands. While the retailer has not been accused of wrongdoing, and these trafficked weapons represent a minuscule fraction of its overall sales, the findings highlight concerning patterns in how firearms move from legitimate retailers to crime scenes.

Gun safety advocates point to these cases as examples of warning signs that licensed firearms dealers might overlook or ignore, enabling thousands of weapons to reach individuals who would otherwise be prohibited from purchasing them. Academy Sports did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has identified tens of thousands of guns trafficked across state lines since 2017. The agency has mapped three major trafficking corridors: the Interstate 95 route from Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia to Northeastern cities; the Mississippi River path from Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee to Illinois; and the southwestern pipeline from Arizona and Nevada to California.

ATF data shows that less than 30% of recovered trafficked guns are found in states other than where they were purchased, suggesting opportunities for local and state authorities to help disrupt these illegal supply chains.

“Gun trafficking often begins at the sales counter,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law. “This is not an either/or proposition. Straw purchasers and gun traffickers must be prosecuted, and retailers like Academy operating on the front lines also have a critical responsibility to stop gun trafficking when faced with clear red flags.”

The firearms industry has maintained that sellers take straw purchasing—when someone buys a gun for a person prohibited from owning one—seriously, though they argue it can be difficult to determine when a buyer is being dishonest.

Everytown’s researchers noticed Academy Sports stores appearing repeatedly in recent straw purchasing prosecutions. Though the company hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing in these cases, Academy Sports did pay a $2.5 million settlement in 2023 to families of victims killed by a serial killer who illegally acquired weapons at one of its locations, without admitting liability.

The report details several trafficking operations involving Academy stores. In one case, a pair of straw buyers purchased guns across Georgia and Texas in 2021 and 2022. Police later recovered more than two dozen of these weapons, with nine linked to shootings in the Washington, D.C. area.

In Arkansas, a man pleaded guilty last year after buying more than 100 guns from three different Academy stores between September 2020 and January 2021. He transported many to New York for sale, with at least 12 recovered in New York City—including one from a minor and another linked to a robbery.

Another operation involved four people who purchased 119 guns from over a dozen Academy Sports locations around Atlanta in 2020. These weapons were transported to Philadelphia, with three later recovered by police in Philadelphia and New York City.

In South Carolina, a straw buyer used another person’s credit card to purchase four pistols that police later found in Boston. One was connected to a shooting that occurred just two weeks after the purchase.

Everytown researchers identified common red flags across these cases, including buyers purchasing multiple firearms at once, buying duplicate weapons, or using cash or someone else’s credit card.

“Legal gun owners look at guns as a tool. You don’t go to Home Depot and buy 10 hammers to complete a project,” explained Marianna Mitchem, a senior industry consultant at Everytown and former ATF official.

Mitchem noted that the Biden administration has focused on studying firearms trafficking pathways and analyzing data on crime guns. Suspicious behaviors might include customers with shopping lists or purchasing several identical firearms despite limited firearms knowledge.

“It is the responsibility for all gun stores to not sell guns when they have reasonable cause to believe that there is an illegal sale,” she emphasized.

Thomas Chittum, a former ATF official now teaching as an adjunct law professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, advocates for a collaborative approach between federal authorities and gun sellers.

“The reality is there are red flags that authorities will never see on paperwork,” Chittum said, underlining the importance of retailers’ cooperation. “Most of them are responsible business owners who realize they have a vested interest in keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.”