The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles has sent a memo to Southern California police chiefs and sheriffs saying the agency has found law enforcement officers buying and reselling guns in what could be a violation of federal firearms laws.

The March 31 memo from Eric Harden, the ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division special agent in charge, describes the finding as an “emerging problem” the agency has become aware of, and he expressed concern about “the growing trend of law enforcement officials engaging in the business of unlicensed firearms dealing.”

He did not say how many officers the agency has found purchasing and reselling weapons, but the memo says some officers had bought more than 100 firearms. Some of the guns have been recovered at crime scenes.

Harden said this is a training and education problem.


“It is our goal to educate, not investigate, to ensure law enforcement officials comply with federal law in order to avoid unnecessary public embarrassment to themselves and your Department/Agency,” Harden wrote.

His memo, obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune, focuses on the purchase and resale of “off roster” firearms. Those are guns that are not on an approved roster of weapons that can be sold to the public.

The California law establishing the roster has an exemption that allows sworn peace officers to purchase such weapons, however. Another exception allows officers to resell the guns under certain conditions.

But if officers are buying and reselling multiple weapons for profit as a business, they need a federal firearms license, or FFL.


The lack of a license is the conduct that ATF has uncovered and is the subject of the memo.

“Recently, ATF has discovered that some law enforcement officers who do not have an FFL are purchasing ‘off roster” firearms … and reselling those firearms to non-law enforcement entities for a profit,” Harden wrote.

That amounts to a violation of federal law of selling firearms without a federal license, the memo said. In addition, if a gun is bought with the intent to sell it later or buy it on behalf of someone else and that was not disclosed on federal transaction records — known as a “straw purchase” — that also breaks federal law for lying on a federal firearms form.

Selling without a license can carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Lying on the federal form carries a maximum 10-year penalty.


It is unclear when the ATF discovered the problems, nor what specifically prompted the memo.

Ginger Colbrun, spokeswoman for the ATF Los Angeles office, said the agency noticed that firearms recovered at crime scenes were then traced and some showed they had been purchased within the past three years.

That “time to crime” measure developed by the ATF shows the time frame from when a gun is sold by a licensed dealer to when it is recovered by police during a criminal investigation. The national average is 10 years. A shorter time period can indicate the gun was the product of a straw purchase — bought in order to be sold quickly.

After spotting the trend in routine trace reports, the agency looked closer, Colbrun said. “After further investigation, ATF noticed some law enforcement officers had been making significant purchases of firearms,” she said.


She declined to be more specific, saying there were ongoing investigations.

Colbrun also said the memo, addressed to “Dear Law Enforcement Partner,” didn’t indicate law enforcement officers who might be breaking federal gun laws were getting special treatment by being offered a chance to be educated by the ATF and not prosecuted by federal authorities.

“There is no extra consideration,” she said. “We believe the most effective way to stop the behavior is to educate law enforcement in what the laws are and aren’t.”

The California Police Chiefs Association, which represents chiefs and sheriffs across the state, emailed the memo to its members Tuesday morning.


Local police leaders, including San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, Sheriff Bill Gore and Escondido Police Chief Craig Carter, then forwarded the memo on to their departments, officials said Wednesday.

Carter said the email was unexpected. “We hardly ever get an email (from the ATF) if there isn’t an issue,” he said. “Whether that issue is in this county or somewhere else in the state, I don’t know.”

He also said he was unaware of any officers or deputies who were being investigated by ATF in San Diego County, but added he may not know of cases being handled by the federal agency.

“I sent it out to every single one of my cops saying, ‘Don’t forget. This is the way it’s supposed to be done.’ …I felt (the memo) was a reminder that these are the rules and we are not exempt from them,” Carter said.


Representatives of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego Police Department also said there were no ongoing firearm sale investigations that they are aware of involving their officers or deputies.

Federal prosecutions of state law enforcement officers for selling off-roster weapons are rare. The most recent occurred in Sacramento County, when former Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan McGowan was found guilty in June 2015 of selling guns illegally and falsifying federal records to do it.

Prosecutors said he sold 25 guns at an inflated price between 2008 and 2011. McGowan also worked with a licensed gun shop to further circumvent federal law.

One sale involved a buyer who converted two guns to assault weapons and later got into a six-hour standoff with a SWAT team, according to the Sacramento Bee.


This past June, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Twitter: @gregmoran


greg.moran@sduniontribune.com