Dr. Gerilyn Utter

So sometimes you'll bring along someone else.

So I think that that is something that tends to stick in their minds just due to something called a straw purchase, an illegal gun purchase, specifically when you bring someone in that can't purchase the gun because they have a criminal record.

and the person standing before the shop owner is buying it with the intent of giving it to someone else.

So a lot of the times when you see partners or when you see two people together, that is something that does generally raise a red flag because they want to make sure who they're selling equipment or who they're selling a gun to is going to that individual and not perhaps the person that's accompanying that individual to the store.

So that's definitely something they are mindful of.

So a straw purchase is, so let's just say I have a criminal record, Nancy, and I have a felony record and I am not allowed to purchase a gun.

So what I will do is I will bring someone, a friend, or get in touch with someone who has a clean record and that record's criminal as well as a psychiatric record.

You can't have any

what we call involuntary psychiatric commitments and purchase a gun.

So I will bring that person with me.

And even though I am the person who wants the gun, I can't purchase it because I'm a felon, I'm a convicted felon or I have serious psychiatric issues.

So I accompany that individual and I go into that store with them and the person with the clean record or the person that doesn't have a criminal record

is the one that is facing the gun store owner.

And I'm with them saying, hey, I want that gun or I want that.

But really, I can't be the one to communicate or step up to the gun shop owner.

I have to be the one in the background, even though it's for me.

so a straw purchase is essentially an illegal purchase where you you bring somebody else into the gun shop that does not have the criminal record they are the one who has you know who purchases the gun it's in their name essentially when they leave the gun store they turn around and they give it to their buddy or the person who accompanied them because that's the person who really

you know, is going to be utilizing the gun.