In 2006, in two separate lawsuits, New York City, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, sued 27 dealers whose guns were turning up repeatedly in crimes. But Arrowhead, which Georgia records show was first registered with the state in 1989, was not among them. Eventually, most of the gun dealers settled with the city, agreeing to a federal monitor to oversee their businesses for three years and to make various changes to prevent gun trafficking.

Image The silver Taurus semiautomatic handgun used to kill two police officers in New York City. Credit... New York Police Department, via Getty Images

A store’s guns turning up frequently in crimes is not necessarily evidence that its employees are doing anything illegal. It could simply be an indication that the store does brisk business.

Speaking about Arrowhead, a former federal law enforcement official who carried out gun investigations in the South said: “They were like a Crazy Eddie of gun dealers. They had a lot of volume and they did a lot of business.” The federal official spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.

A high number of traces could also be a tipoff that a store’s employees are not doing enough to weed out “straw purchasers,” people who are purchasing guns on behalf of people who are not legally allowed to have them because of felony convictions or other reasons.

“Some of it is a willful ignorance, or just a mind-set of, ‘My obligation is only to follow the letter of the law,’ as opposed to some gun dealers who sort of take it to the next length and say, ‘Anything I think doesn’t seem right, I have no obligation to sell, and I’m not going to sell,’” said Daniel Webster, the director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University, who has researched gun trafficking.

On Tuesday, employees at Arrowhead, which is nestled between a store selling school uniforms and a Hibachi Grill Supreme Buffet, refused to discuss the transaction related to the police shooting.

“We’re not going to answer any questions today,” an employee said. “Please leave.”

Reached by telephone later that day, Arthur Banks, the store’s chief executive, declined to comment.