Online gun dealer fined $200,000 for sales in N.Y.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
(October 18, 2002) — ALBANY — A Georgia-based online and mail-order weapons retailer will pay a $200,000 fine for selling more than 4,500 illegal weapons to New York customers over the past three years, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced Thursday.
Bud K Worldwide Inc. has agreed to stop selling and shipping illegal weapons to New York addresses, Spitzer said.
New Yorkers ordered about $1 million worth of weapons from the Moultrie, Ga., company between September 1999 and May 2002. Eleven percent of those sales concerned weapons that are illegal in New York state, such as electric stun guns, Kung Fu throwing stars and the Fang of Baelin knuckle knife, Spitzer said.
“We were not aware they were restricted,” said Rodney Hunter, Bud K’s chief financial officer. “As soon as we were informed they were restricted, we stopped selling to that state.”
The company’s Web site boasts the “best knife prices,” offering, for example, a cane-sheathed sword for $19.95.
“A 15-year-old, or someone with a criminal record could go online with a credit card number and have these products shipped into New York state,” Spitzer said.
“These are lethal weapons. These can kill, maim, threaten. They’re used in robberies, assaults, murders.”
The martial arts weapons supplier must pay New York $198,000 in penalties and $2,000 to reimburse Spitzer’s office for its investigation. The company must provide Spitzer’s office with a list of New York customers who bought illegal weapons, and notify those buyers about their illegal purchase. It also must publish notices in its catalog and Web site telling customers which products are illegal in New York.
Possessing the weapons is considered a fourth-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum prison sentence of one year. Legal weapons the company sells include air guns and regular knives.
Consumers who turn in their illegal weapons to local police will not face criminal charges, Spitzer said.
The investigation began in October 2001, after a woman walked into the attorney general’s Rochester office with a catalog, asking if the items were legal.
“She had no idea how she wound up on their mailing list. When the catalog showed up at her house, she was upset,” said Benjamin Bruce, an assistant attorney general in Rochester.
The company had previously reached settlements with Massachusetts and California for selling illegal weapons in those states, Spitzer said.
Hunter denied the 14-year-old company had “any other issues with other states.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/1018story23_news.shtml
Neat headline, considering that guns had absolutely NOTHING to do with any of the charges.....
They make it sound as if you could go out to the Bud K website and purchase Uzis and HKs.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
(October 18, 2002) — ALBANY — A Georgia-based online and mail-order weapons retailer will pay a $200,000 fine for selling more than 4,500 illegal weapons to New York customers over the past three years, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced Thursday.
Bud K Worldwide Inc. has agreed to stop selling and shipping illegal weapons to New York addresses, Spitzer said.
New Yorkers ordered about $1 million worth of weapons from the Moultrie, Ga., company between September 1999 and May 2002. Eleven percent of those sales concerned weapons that are illegal in New York state, such as electric stun guns, Kung Fu throwing stars and the Fang of Baelin knuckle knife, Spitzer said.
“We were not aware they were restricted,” said Rodney Hunter, Bud K’s chief financial officer. “As soon as we were informed they were restricted, we stopped selling to that state.”
The company’s Web site boasts the “best knife prices,” offering, for example, a cane-sheathed sword for $19.95.
“A 15-year-old, or someone with a criminal record could go online with a credit card number and have these products shipped into New York state,” Spitzer said.
“These are lethal weapons. These can kill, maim, threaten. They’re used in robberies, assaults, murders.”
The martial arts weapons supplier must pay New York $198,000 in penalties and $2,000 to reimburse Spitzer’s office for its investigation. The company must provide Spitzer’s office with a list of New York customers who bought illegal weapons, and notify those buyers about their illegal purchase. It also must publish notices in its catalog and Web site telling customers which products are illegal in New York.
Possessing the weapons is considered a fourth-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum prison sentence of one year. Legal weapons the company sells include air guns and regular knives.
Consumers who turn in their illegal weapons to local police will not face criminal charges, Spitzer said.
The investigation began in October 2001, after a woman walked into the attorney general’s Rochester office with a catalog, asking if the items were legal.
“She had no idea how she wound up on their mailing list. When the catalog showed up at her house, she was upset,” said Benjamin Bruce, an assistant attorney general in Rochester.
The company had previously reached settlements with Massachusetts and California for selling illegal weapons in those states, Spitzer said.
Hunter denied the 14-year-old company had “any other issues with other states.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/1018story23_news.shtml
Neat headline, considering that guns had absolutely NOTHING to do with any of the charges.....
They make it sound as if you could go out to the Bud K website and purchase Uzis and HKs.