Commissioner calls for further investigation after sheriff’s gun show sting | Crime and Courts

Dan Hedger, who owns the corporate that places on the gun exhibits, mentioned he is wasn’t conscious of an undercover police operation however had no issues with it.

“I am really high-quality with it,” Hedger mentioned Sunday. “I’ve tried to get them put undercovers in there. I’ve at all times been acceptable to that.”

The Crown Level gun exhibits, which have been held for many years, lengthy have been criticized as a spot the place straw purchasers — who usually haven’t any convictions that will stop them from shopping for a gun — can divert firearms to these can not legally possess them.

Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. introduced Thursday his division seized 66 firearms and greater than $18,000 in money throughout Operation Scarecrow, which started in September. Police arrested or detained 56 folks on account of the operation, and fees towards no less than 22 folks have been filed, police mentioned.

Regardless of requires tighter controls on gun gross sales on the exhibits and an anti-gun rally in 2018, the Lake County Board of Commissioners as been reluctant to enact restrictions outdoors of present state and federal legal guidelines. The commissioners run the fairgrounds.

Commissioner Jerry Tippy, R-Schererville, mentioned Friday he and his fellow commissioners “don’t condone any unlawful or irresponsible habits on the fairgrounds.”

“We’ll proceed to analyze and can make the suitable selections as soon as now we have all the info,” Tippy mentioned.

Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, mentioned regulation enforcement is Martinez’s job.

“So he is doing a superb job,” Repay mentioned. “He ought to get a pat on the again for that.”

Hedger, proprietor of Central Indiana Gun Reveals for greater than 20 years, mentioned he beforehand invited the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to arrange contained in the gun exhibits and works with sheriff’s police, who present safety at fairgrounds occasions.

Gun present guidelines are clearly posted and warn towards improper switch of firearms, Hedger mentioned. Present patrons are also suggested they have to pull down face masks to be recognized, have to be no less than 18 years previous to enter, can not herald loaded firearms and extra, he mentioned.

Over time, Hedger and among the sellers on the exhibits have reported suspicious exercise to police, he mentioned. 

“We do every thing we are able to to cease folks from doing silly issues,” Hedger mentioned.

Courtroom information present a vendor introduced suspicious exercise to the eye of sheriff’s police throughout Operation Scarecrow.

John Halstead, one of many organizers of the anti-gun protest in 2018, mentioned, “Specializing in the police arresting these concerned in unlawful gun gross sales contributes to a false sense of safety.”

Halstead pointed to a assessment of knowledge for 2020 by the Pew Research Center, which discovered greater than half of gun deaths in 2020 resulted from suicide.

A 2005 research by the U.S. Division of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics confirmed “most murders (together with gun murders) are dedicated by household (1 / 4) or buddies and acquaintances (over half), and never by strangers (1 / 4),” Halstead mentioned.

“What bothers me greater than gun possession, and even unlawful gun possession, is the poisonous gun tradition within the U.S., which is tied up with racism, poisonous masculinity, romanticizing of violence and hyper-individualism,” he mentioned.

The Crown Level gun exhibits first turned a topic of controversy when the late Rudy Clay, a former county commissioner and Gary mayor, denounced them in 1993. Clay lobbied unsuccessfully for an ordinance barring the sale of weapons on county property.

In 2013, Cook dinner County Sheriff Tom Dart and former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich raised considerations about doable straw patrons on the weapons exhibits. Buncich pushed Lake County commissioners to tighten controls on gun present distributors and personal gross sales, however commissioners finally rejected Buncich’s request and the weapons exhibits continued.

Dart’s workplace mentioned he was unavailable Friday to touch upon Operation Scarecrow.