MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – New evidence videos obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators reveal how guns initially sold by Fleet Farm to illegal straw buyers repeatedly surfaced at crime scenes across the Twin Cities.

Unrecovered firearms an ‘ongoing public safety threat’

Timeline:

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a civil lawsuit against Fleet Farm in 2022, one year after the mass shooting at the Truck Park Bar in St. Paul. A firearm initially sold by Fleet Farm was recovered at the scene and traced to convicted straw buyer Jerome Horton Jr. 

“There were clear signs that we found that we believe that Fleet Farm should have known – and they sold them the gun anyway,” Attorney General Keith Ellison told the FOX 9 Investigators in a recent interview. 

Fleet Farm has denied any wrongdoing and over the past three years, the company has repeatedly tried to get the state’s lawsuit thrown out, arguing it was shielded from liability by a federal law which generally insulates the gun industry from civil litigation.

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Why you should care:

The FOX 9 Investigators tracked at least 46 guns that were sold by Fleet Farm stores in Minnesota to straw buyers – someone who illegally purchases a firearm for another individual, often on behalf of criminals. 

Eight of those guns were recovered at various crime scenes across the Twin Cities, including from criminals on the streets of Minneapolis, to a loaded handgun found by a six-year-old boy, to the scene of a deadly mass shooting in St. Paul. 

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However, the vast majority of those 46 Fleet Farm guns have not been recovered. In September, federal Judge John Tunheim said those unrecovered firearms “pose an ongoing public safety threat to Minnesotans.” 

The gun industry’s ‘unprecedented form of immunity’ 

Dig deeper:

 Fleet Farm leaned on a federal shield law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act – also known as PLCAA – in its attempts to get Minnesota’s lawsuit dismissed. 

“The gun industry enjoys a pretty unprecedented form of immunity,” said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel for the Giffords Law Center. “The immunity law imposes hurdles, obstacles to being able to hold the gun companies accountable in court the way, for example, the opioid industry has been held accountable through civil litigation.” 

The PLCAA can be traced back to when major cities like Chicago filed a wave of lawsuits against the gun industry in the 1990s. 

“It was kind of the successor to big tobacco litigation,” said Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira. 

What they’re saying:

Major gun companies like Colt Manufacturing called on Congress for help. They testified on Capitol Hill about having to defend themselves against “a multitude of lawsuits.”

“To blame Colt for the criminal misuse of firearms that are lawfully manufactured and sold is unjust,” said Colt Manufacturing Company’s Carlton Chen during a congressional hearing in 2003. “It is also threatening to our very existence.” 

Gun rights advocates like Richard Pearson, who leads the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the federal immunity law was needed because of “frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit” that were trying to drain the money out of the gun companies.

Piercing the gun industry’s shield law 

The backstory:

 Congress passed the PLCAA with bipartisan support, but there were exceptions built into the law that have allowed cities and states – like Minnesota – to sue gun companies. 

“They intended it to be a shield for lawful conduct, not for unlawful conduct,” Madeira said. 

One of those exceptions includes when there are allegations of lawbreaking involving how firearms are marketed and sold. 

In a 2023 ruling, a federal judge found Minnesota’s lawsuit was “not preempted” by PLCAA and could move forward. 

A jury trial in federal court was scheduled for April 2026 until Fleet Farm agreed to settle the case for $1 million and agreed to reform the way the company sells and tracks gun sales across its stores. 

“We condemn gun violence and remain committed to partnering with law enforcement and community leaders to help keep our communities safe,” Fleet Farm said in a statement after the settlement.

“I wanted to put the case in front of 12 Minnesotans and see what they thought, but you know, it is also responsible to settle cases when the offer is right,” Ellison said.

“What it does mean is if you’re selling guns in the State of Minnesota, you better obey the law – if I can show that you knew or should have known that you were selling to a trafficker, I’m suing you.”

What’s next: Minnesota also has a pending civil lawsuit against Glock – one of the largest gun manufacturers in the world.  A trial in that case is tentatively scheduled for next year.