Tale of a Blackmarket Gun Dealer/WSJ

[Covert Mission]

From today's Wall St. Journal online:

Mr. Sizer's Sideline: How a Gun Supplier Goes About Business

By JEFFREY TAYLOR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

PHILADELPHIA -- Gregory Sizer was running a Christian bookstore here
when he decided to launch a second business: selling guns.

He recruited friends to buy handguns and assault rifles at gun stores.
He resold the weapons illegally for higher prices, both in his bookstore
and in car-trunk transactions on the street. A charismatic man known
for delivering powerful speeches at his inner-city church, the
6-foot-6-inch Mr. Sizer also bought guns himself, sometimes while
wearing a hat inscribed with the words "I Love Jesus."

Mr. Sizer might have put his stamp on the City of Brotherly Love as one
of its leading gun suppliers, but he chose his customers poorly; one of
them was a man who claimed to represent New Jersey mobsters but
was in fact a paid government informant.

Easy Money

Transcripts of tape-recorded conversations between Mr. Sizer and that
informant provide an unusually detailed look at how an unlicensed gun
business operates. Mr. Sizer's group bought and resold more than 90
pistols and rifles in early 1998, many of which were later traced to
use in crimes, says the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms. The profit margins were high -- as much as
$550, for instance, on a Hi-Point assault rifle that originally sold for
about $150.

The wave of deadly shootings in recent months
has drawn national attention to the role gun
dealers play in supplying guns to people legally
prohibited from buying them. In Mr. Sizer's case,
a gun bought by one of his men wound up in the
hands of a distraught local woman too young to
purchase it legally. She used the Jennings 9mm
pistol to kill her three children and herself.

As it turns out, though, neither the tragedy nor
Mr. Sizer's arrest on gun charges alienated him
from the members of his church, the
Evangelistic Temple Church of God in Christ.
Parishioners continue to talk to Mr. Sizer by
phone and pray for his redemption. Last year, a
group from the church packed a bail hearing as
character witnesses.

"No one here is 100% holy till they get to glory," says Temple member
Ethelyne Williford. "We love him with a Godly love. That's how we can
support him." Mr. Sizer, who declined to be interviewed in jail, pleaded
guilty in July to federal gun crimes and will be sentenced next month.

Mr. Sizer's business sprouted in a community where occupied row
houses mingle with charred shells and murals commemorate
civil-rights leaders and slain gang members. This part of North
Philadelphia is a hotbed of illegal gun trafficking -- so intense that the
ATF deploys a task force to do what amounts to a constant undercover
investigation, says Tom Stankiewicz, the agent who runs it.

Mr. Sizer first dabbled in the business several years ago, as he told one
of his gun-buying colleagues, making runs to Southern states with
liberal gun laws and bringing the weapons back for resale in
Philadelphia. Influenced by his deeply religious mother, Mr. Sizer later
embraced the Christian church, says his pastor, the Rev. Glen Dawson.
Mr. Sizer started his book business in the back of a barbershop, selling
Bibles, hymnals and other religious materials.

Last year, he moved the bookstore out of the barbershop and into larger
quarters across the street, cutting into its modest revenue with
increased expenses for rent and utilities. And he started buying
firearms again, most of them from C&C Sports Center, a gun shop in
middle-class Northeast Philadelphia. He was able to get a permit to
carry guns because he had no criminal record.

Selling guns was simply more profitable than selling religious
paraphernalia. Mr. Sizer started by buying inexpensive handguns on
which his resale profit margin would be high. According to an interview
he later gave to the ATF, he sold about 14 of these guns to a drug dealer
he knew, making $100 to $150 of tax-free profit on each one.

As his business grew, he often bought more than one handgun on a
single day, a so-called "multiple purchase" that gun dealers are
required to report to the ATF. These transactions prompted the ATF to
open a file on Mr. Sizer, Mr. Stankiewicz says.

Throughout this period, Mr. Sizer maintained strong ties to his church.
He often took the microphone at services to deliver his "testimony,"
reading scripture and telling inspirational stories. Mr. Sizer was a good
speaker, his church friends say, a compelling presence at the church
podium who was capable of inspiring "the holy spirit" in others with his
own enthusiasm. He was a good salesman, too, coming off in the ATF
tapes as both glib and persuasive.

Soon Mr. Sizer was doing business by cell phone and delivering guns in a
late-model Buick Regal. Concerned about the number of guns he was
buying in his own name, he began looking for people to make the
purchases for him. One such buyer was Juan Coreano, a friend who
worked as a security guard at his bookstore.

A former Marine military policeman with a cocaine habit but no
criminal record, Mr. Coreano had no trouble obtaining his gun permit. Mr.
Sizer accompanied him for his first gun purchases, putting up the cash
to buy them and paying Mr. Coreano a $50 fee for each gun.

In an interview, Mr. Coreano, 37 years old, accuses Mr. Sizer of
exploiting his drug addiction to get him to buy guns. Yet the two men
shared a religious connection -- and a relationship at least as
complicated as Mr. Sizer's bond with his church. Before leading Mr.
Coreano into the gun business, Mr. Coreano says, Mr. Sizer had helped
convert his friend to Christianity by bringing him to a service at the
Evangelistic Temple.

'He Messed Me Up'

Still, Mr. Coreano, who recently began serving a 23-month prison
sentence after pleading guilty to gun charges, isn't as inclined to
forgive Mr. Sizer as are other members of the congregation. "He abused
my friendship," Mr. Coreano says. "He saved me, but he also messed me
up. You can't say one thing and do another."

Mr. Sizer enlisted Steve Colter, an employee of the barbershop where he
had sold his Christian books, to look for buyers from outside the
neighborhood. In February 1998, Mr. Colter introduced Mr. Sizer to a
buyer who claimed to represent Mafia interests in Atlantic City, N.J.,
but who was an ATF informant.

In early transactions with the informant, Mr. Sizer was cagey. One took
place on Feb. 11 in an alley behind the barbershop. Mr. Sizer showed up
in his green Buick and opened the trunk to show the informant and an
undercover ATF agent two assault rifles, a Hi-Point and a Norinco. But
he let Mr. Colter hand the weapons over and collect the cash for them
after he had driven away.

The ATF agent paid $1,400 for the two guns. The serial numbers had
been filed off both rifles, but the police crime lab managed to restore
one of them, and it matched that of a gun purchased by Mr. Sizer. Mr.
Sizer had bought the two rifles for a total of $295, making a profit of
$1,105, minus an unspecified finder's fee for Mr. Colter.

In an interview from prison, Mr. Colter says that the high price worried
him, making him suspect -- too late -- that the buyers were undercover
agents.

The Mistake

At this point, Mr. Sizer made a major mistake: Eager to keep all the
profit for himself, he contacted the ATF informant directly. A series of
transactions between Mr. Sizer and undercover ATF agents followed,
most discussed in detail on the ATF tapes. One transaction took place
inside the Christian bookstore. In another deal, Mr. Sizer delivered guns
in a box bearing the return address of a religious publisher.

Mr. Sizer also disclosed various details about his gun business. He
obliterated serial numbers from the guns using a file, a grinding wheel
and black paint, he said, and he sometimes attended gun shows, where
private collectors aren't obliged to check the backgrounds of buyers.

The transcripts of the ATF tapes reveal a somewhat harder side of Mr.
Sizer than was evident to his friends at the Evangelistic Temple. On
March 6, for instance, he was heard delivering the ultimate sales pitch
on a gun he was offering: "Hit anybody once, you kill him. You know what
I'm saying?"

Soon the ATF was tracking Mr. Sizer's every move, shadowing him as he
drove to buy guns and watching him from the street as he left his
bookstore to sell them. Employees of Mr. Sizer's favorite gun store
were cooperating with the ATF by informing agents of purchases made
by Mr. Sizer and others in his group.

The ATF was concerned, in particular, about the many cheap Jennings
9mm handguns being purchased by Mr. Coreano. Unlike Mr. Sizer, Mr.
Coreano wasn't reselling them to ATF agents, and the agents theorized
--correctly -- that he was selling them on his own to others in the
neighborhood.

In April, agents confronted Mr. Coreano and persuaded him to come back
to ATF headquarters, waive his Miranda rights, and give a statement
that incriminated both himself and Mr. Sizer. In the taped conversations
between Mr. Sizer and the ATF informant, Mr. Sizer was soon describing
Mr. Coreano's legal problems.

'Trying to Get Slick'

Mr. Sizer blamed Mr. Coreano for "trying to get slick" by selling guns on
his own. Yet after a brief period of "chilling" in which no agents showed
up to arrest him, Mr. Sizer was back to selling guns.

In September, the ATF's fears about Mr. Coreano were realized: One of
the guns he bought and resold turned up at a crime scene at which a
young woman named Miguelina Estevez killed her two-year-old triplet
sons and herself. The 19-year-old mother had been distraught,
neighbors say, because her boyfriend left her and moved back to their
native Dominican Republic.

Mr. Sizer was arrested the same month. For nearly a year, he resisted
an indictment, although Messrs. Coreano, Colter and others who bought
guns for Mr. Sizer all pleaded guilty to gun crimes and pledged to
testify against him.

Through it all, members of the Evangelistic Temple stood by Messrs.
Sizer and Coreano. Their pastor, the Rev. Dawson, explains the Temple's
support this way: The words painted on its storefront -- "a church in
the hood with the hood at its heart" -- are more than a motto. Rather,
Rev. Dawson says, they testify to the church's commitment to redeem
local people from the temptations of their bleak community.

"We all fall short," the pastor says, adding that he believes the two men
were "tricked" by Satan into criminal activity.

While awaiting trial, says his lawyer, Andrew Gay, Mr. Sizer retreated
into his faith, refusing to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence
against him. Mr. Gay says he tried to persuade Mr. Sizer to plead guilty
because judges are often more lenient in sentencing defendants who
admit their crimes. But Mr. Sizer wanted to go to trial, Mr. Gay says,
because he firmly expected God to grant him a miracle in the form of an
acquittal.

On the day the trial was to begin, Mr. Sizer reversed course and pleaded
guilty to all nine felony charges against him: one count each of
conspiracy and selling guns without a license and seven counts of
possessing weapons with obliterated serial numbers. He faces a term
of five to eight years without parole.

What changed his mind? His lawyer, Mr. Gay, had researched miracles on
the Internet -- Lourdes, Fatima, the Miracle of the Grotto. "I said, 'Look
at the numbers. There are hundreds of thousands of cases tried, but
very few miracles,' " Mr. Gay says. "I asked him, 'Why do you think God
would cause a miracle in this case?' "

[Jim Keenan]

The liberals must be ecstatic. They get to dump on gun dealers and religion at the same time!

Jim

[ctdonath]

"How A Gun Supplier Goes About Business"

Absolutely the wrong title and lead-in. Should be "How A Criminal Goes About Breaking The Law", with an insert of "How A Writer Can Make A Legitimate Industry Look Bad Without Really Trying".

[DC]

ctdonath...

Yep, wonder why these writers don't take the same slant when writing about drug dealers.

They don't equate them to Doctors and Pharmacists

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

[Blue Jays]

Hi Everyone-

Ya' know, every now and again the Wall Street Journal really disappoints us.

As a print subscriber for more than 12 years and Interactive Edition reader for 2 years, I've noticed that the WSJ is as close to a friend that we have in the major media.

Then, some editor approves this stinker!

DC, speaking of pharmacists, the WSJ did an excellent story about a Detroit-area pharmacist who defended his own life and the life of a co-worker during a robbery attempt. I'll dig-up the URL and post it for you guys...it's a great read.

Regards,

~ Blue Jays ~

[damiano]

I wonder if the writer even bothered checking his info. Hi-Point doesn't even make "assault weapons." It does make a 9mm carbine for plinking. If that is a assault weapon, my 10/22 is one too.
Idiots.

[Ipecac]

Do undercover agents try to buy knives and baseball bats from "illegal" dealers? Does the FBI spend time finding who sold the car used in the drive-by? The fact of the matter is the person using the gun is the one responsible for any injuries caused, not the dealer who sold the gun.

What if you sold a gun at a gunshow which was later used in a crime? Should you go to jail?

Licensing gun dealers is unconstitutional. Murder has been against the law for quite some time, as has robbery and assault. This story is yellow journalism at its worst, and is best suited for lining the bird cage.

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"...the probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation."
Prof. Frank H. Knight

[HS]

My 2c worth....
Why does any Police Agency have to wait for MULTIPLE infringements before they act ?
Say 3 of the guns he sold were used in Homicides whilst they were investigating him.
Wouldn't that be a Criminal act on the part of the LEOs ?
Always wondered about this sort of thing....
I know the need "Evidence" but where does it go from evidence to putting peoples lives at risk just for that extra 2 years of Jail time ?

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
http://www.para1911fanclub.w3.to/
Alternate E-mail
HS2000@ausi.com

[BigG]

I'm with you guys... When are they going to start convicting criminals of crimes already on the books, such as murder, instead of this phony headline-grabbing stuff like busting a small time dealer? Puts me in mind of Waco. But then, you expect that from the ATF.

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There is the science of Ballistics and the Art of Bullistics
Yankee Doodle

[Brett Bellmore]

Blue Jays: The WSJ editorial staff is alright, but their news staff is the same bunch of gun hating left-wingers you'll find at just about any newspaper.

[orsogato]

As far as the blurb about the parishiners praying for redemption of this guy. WHY? From what I have read it didn't sound like he broke any of the 10 comandments to me. Nor any of God's laws from any biblical passage that I am aware of.

He sold guns without a GOVERNMENT mandated license. This crime is mallum prohibita (bad because it is prohibited by government.com) not mallum in se (bad in and of itself i.e. one of God's laws.)

Besides it shouldnt be a crime to sell firearms anyhow IMHO. They should be treated like books, old clothes, or homemade appple pies. Anybody should be able to buy and sell as they please. That is what "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" means. Now if you comit felonious acts or murder with a weapon, a quick trial by jury and execution is in order if a guilty verdict is found.

THAT IS WHAT FREEDOM MEANS TO ME.

[Mike in VA]

So Bearcat, you don't think arming criminals is a bad thing in and of itself? Providing people with a proven propensity to do harm to others with the means to do harm seems pretty immoral to me. I understand your broader point about government meddling, but until the nation as a whole adapts the Vermont model, and things become 'self-regulating', Mr. Sizer is not a misunderstood enterpaneur, but a scumbag who arms fellow scumbags. JMHO.
M2

PS - I didn't mean to imply that I appreciated or agreed with the slant of the article (the bias was pretty obvious) and I would ad that religion is often used to cover a lot of shady/unethical stuff, e.g. Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, et al. Not everything done in the name of God is honorable.

[This message has been edited by Mike in VA (edited October 21, 1999).]

[Larry P.]

I have to agree with Orsogato. On top of which the BUYER is the one who should be aware of his/her legal ability to purchase a firearm, back to the gas chamber if you break that law. The concept that a dealer should have to worry about it is silly.

I also agree that the time to make an arrest was after the FIRST purchase/evidence of filing off numbers, as described. It is real difficult to imagine a defense against a charge of filing off numbers, as I cannot think of any reason for a law-abiding citizen to do so. Waiting, apparently deliberately, until someone is killed with such weapons strikes me as severe dereliction of duty.

OTOH, an underage woman who has three kids and is suicidal is probably someone we can all do without. I feel sorry for the kids.

What I do NOT agree with is this "the WSJ is all right" crapola. But it strikes that the subject is better covered in its own thread, which I am about to open.

Toodles.

[Will Beararms]

We know what to expect from the Wall Street Journal on the guns issue. Sizer is a discredit to all of us who abide by the law. He deserves stiff punishment for his offenses. Any persons or persons who were complicit with him deserve what they receive and have no one to blame but themselves for their stupidity.



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"When guns are outlawed;I will be an outlaw."

[Oatka]

Geez, what I am on? I didn't read the article as anti-gun, despite a few inaccuracies, inadvertant or not.

I read it as an indictment of the BATF and
it's inept enforcement. Sizer should have been busted Big Time after his first offense. Then there's the usual idiotic
"Marion Barry" congregation who thinks the preacher can do no wrong. These people give the religion-bashing liberals all the fodder they need, and are an embarrassment to all
religions.

What realy got me was that after all his violations, he's only liable for 5-8 years?
I thought each violation was worth a fiver in itself.

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If you can't fight City Hall, at least defecate on the steps.

[DonL]

Do guns cause crime like religion causes illegal gun sales?

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Don LeHue

Salad isn't food. Salad is what food eats.

[FNG]

Why do you suppose anyone would pay MORE than gun store prices for a firearm? Duh! I wonder if it would have been alright if his hat said "I Love Clinton". By the way JESUS says that if you end up in jail for something you did on your own you will stay till you have paid the last penny.

[orsogato]

Mike in Va.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I didnt see in the article were it said he sold the guns to felons. It said he sold to a BATF informant who turned him in.

Believe me I dont want felons to have weapons. But, they always will, no matter how many laws.

I advocate STIFF PUNISHMENTS for felonious crimes.

Besides some people said the people paid a premium so they wouldnt have to go through the paperwork.

I know many law abiding citizens that will only buy firearms privately so that they may keep their privacy, and their weapons and names off the NICS database. These law abiding citizens will gladly pay a premium to keep their privacy.

Because EVERY one of those transactions on NICS is Databased. and the records are not being destroyed. INSTANT REGISTRATION is already de facto in place.

[Raymond VanDerLinden]

No I'm not BATF, nor am I very fond of them. I can however answer the one Question that has been ask several times and never answered. Why Multipal Sales?

Easy, they have to prove a livelyhood, ie buisness, is being made. If selling one fire arm for a profit was enough to land you in jail most of the people on TFL would be there. I'd be there right with you. You are only breaking the law when you are doing a profit making buisness.

Fact is that had he only made say $5.00 dollors a weapon and sold to no one he should have known was a Felon he would still be free today as he would not have made selling guns his unlicensed livelyhood.
I know a man that sold 30 SKS. He was not licensed, and sold to his friends. But he only charged them $5.00 over his cost to cover his expense in Transport. He was turned in to BATF (Not by me, by a crooked now ex-cop) BATF said, "He's not making enough money for it to be a crime."

[Mike in VA]

Orso - I just sorta made a leap in logic based on the description in the story that those weren't honest folks who should otherwise be le=gally qualified to own firearms. I understand the desirability of paperless transactions, but still . . . it stretches at least my imagination to think the customers were upstanding citizens. Oatka's comments also struck a cord with me - there was some serious bungling/grandstanding by BATF. They had plenty of evidence to make a case and shut him down way sooner. All in all, pretty sorry. M2

[12-34hom]

GRRED + STUIPIDITY + CRIMINAL = YOU"RE BUSTED. NUFF SAID

[Dorsai]

I can't believe the posts supporting this guy. He's the kind of guy that gets legislation passed that makes gun buying, owning and shooting more difficult for you and me, or turns us into criminals. I am no fan of the ATF, but in this case, the guy was a rat. He wasn't much of a Christian, and he wasn't the kind of guy I would buy a gun from or hang with. Face it, if you want to sell guns for a business, do it right. He knew he was selling to people who couldn't buy legally and he knew he was doing it illegally. At 6'6", I doubt he'll be anybody's girlfriend in prison, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over the length of time he's there.

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Dorsai
Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys.
-- Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

[orsogato]

Mike in Va,

Yes, your logic is obviously very sound. These guys he was selling to may not be upstanding citizens. My only point was that it never said he sold the weapon to Mr. X who is a convicted felon and cant own a gun (why Mr. X.s is on the street would be a discussion for another day.)

My other point is that I think registration of gun dealers/ and "selling without a license" laws are all infringements on our 2nd amendment rights as provided in our Constitution. YOU DONT NEED A LICENSE TO SELL A BUNCH OF YOUR OLD BIBLES, OR SAY POLITICAL LITERATURE, OR ANY OTHER BOOK AT A FLEA MARKET DO YOU?

Thats all. Believe me I DO NOT condone the use of firearms in any violent crimes. I merely want my FREEDOM preserved. Every day it is under constant attack from all this liberal crap that we get in the "mainstream" media.

In my view ALL gun laws are infringements on my RIGHTS and MY FREEDOM.

ALSO, all gun owners out there must do a paradigm shift. GUN LAWS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO "PROTECT" US FROM VIOLENT CRIME.

If you wanted to do that, the government should be handing out .45 Automatics and mandating that every citizen carry at all times. Violent crime would drop in a heartbeat.

GUN LAWS ARE DESIGNED TO DISARM THE CITIZENRY. We who give the government our CONSENT to be governed. Not the other way around.