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One Gun Dealer, Two Campus Massacres
CBS 4 MIAMI ^ | 17 FEBRUARY 2008 | AP

Posted on 02/16/2008 8:05:37 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist

Wis.-Based Internet Gun Dealer Sold Weapons, Accessories To NIU And Va. Tech Shooters

MADISON, Wis (AP) ― A Green Bay-based Internet gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter last year sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five at Northern Illinois University on Thursday.

Eric Thompson said Friday that his Web site, www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Stephen Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.

The order was shipped on Monday and records of the sale provided to The Associated Press by Thompson show Kazmierczak received the order on Tuesday.

Kazmierczak carried a rifle and three handguns into the classroom Thursday. Thompson said he had no idea whether the shooter was using the holster or magazines he sold. Each magazine can hold 33 bullets. Thompson said his site did not sell Kazmierczak any bullets or guns.

Authorities said two of the weapons he used in the shooting - the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun - were purchased legally Feb. 9 in Champaign, Ill., where Kazmierczak was a student.

This is the second time that a Web site run by Thompson's company, TGSCOM, Inc., has been connected with a campus shooting. Another Thompson site www.thegunsource.com also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Teach campus before killing himself.

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public on Friday. Those records show the sale made to Kazmierczak for a total price of $105.62. The items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.

Thompson said he contacted the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives within five minutes of realizing the latest connection shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Thompson said his Web site is well-known among gun users on the Internet so it is not surprising that someone looking for accessories for a Glock would find it. But being tied to both of the shootings is "unnerving," he said.

"I still feel just absolutely in shock," he said. "I feel like I was run over by a truck."

Thompson said he has no way of knowing whether Kazmierczak found out about his Web site from the publicity it got after the Virginia Tech shootings, but the thought crossed his mind. The Web site did see an increase in traffic after that shooting, he said. Thompson said he also received many phone calls and threats.

He said he's worried the same thing will happen this time around. But he decided to go public because he thought the public has a right to know as much as it can about the shooter and not feed off of rumors or outright lies.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Illinois; US: Virginia; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: banglist; gunfreezone; gungrabber; internet; niu; topglock; virginiatech
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To: panaxanax

The ignorance of the media is deep - and willful.


21 posted on 02/16/2008 9:16:40 PM PST by coloradan (The US is becoming a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: the invisib1e hand
elliot spitzer copycats)

Actually Michael Bloomberg copycats, which he's about to lose in court.

Not that Spitzer wouldn't do it, he just has other corruption issues to deal with at this time.

22 posted on 02/16/2008 9:18:32 PM PST by CaptRon (Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: chuckles
I think you exaggerate. Maybe you are biased?

I've had personal experience with this med (Effexor) due to post partum depression. It is no more addictive than high blood pressure meds or thyroid medication.

If you were to suddenly stop taking either of those and you have some negative physical symptoms...does that mean you are addicted? Of course not.

Those types of meds (SSRI's) have to be started gradually and stopped gradually. Anytime you change the level of chemicals in your brain radically, you can be sure to expect some nasty symptoms. Migraine headache is how I'd best describe it. Heroin withdrawal? lol You have to be kidding.

23 posted on 02/16/2008 9:34:25 PM PST by TNdandelion ("I have no doubt that Sen. Clinton would make a good President"--John McCain)
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To: chuckles

Ambien just makes you “sleep-vote.”


24 posted on 02/16/2008 9:38:27 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I won’t believe this article because it says he carried a rifle.

WRONG

Remington 870 is NOT a rifle.


25 posted on 02/16/2008 9:46:13 PM PST by wastedyears (This is my BOOMSTICK)
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To: org.whodat
This shooter was a prison guard for a while according to Fox news.

That same article says he was also in the Army but got out on what was formerly known as a section 8. Now I find that a bit hard to believe, since there would be a record of that, as well as a record of his residence at a psychiatric facility. No way would an instant check, which he passed at least 3 separate times, not catch that. Unless perhaps it was because he was a juvenile at the time he was in the "facility". But that doesn't explain why it did not catch the Army psycho discharge, nor how he got to be a prison guard with the "Section 8" on his DD-214.

I say ban sociology! I mean if it saves just one life.. The founding fathers certainly never anticipated graduate schools full of sociopathic sociologists, no matter what they wrote in the first amendment. {/s

26 posted on 02/16/2008 9:46:47 PM PST by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: panaxanax

They’re probably trying to get ‘rifle’ to mean the same thing as ‘shotgun’.

Call them out on it LOUD AND CLEAR.


27 posted on 02/16/2008 9:51:12 PM PST by wastedyears (This is my BOOMSTICK)
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To: the invisib1e hand

I wouldn’t like to see dealers scared out of business, of course, but I do have some reservations about firearms sales over the Internet. Your average bricks-and-mortar gun dealer will risk being sued for discrimination (which there ought to be a law exempting gun dealers from, until we can get rid of it for all private businesses) before he’ll sell a gun to someone who is obviously hot under the collar and ranting about people he wants to kill. Gun dealers and private re-sellers of guns should be the on the front lines of preventing obvious crazies from getting guns, but if the only contact they have with a buyer is an online form showing the buyer’s name, the name of the item chosen, the credit card being used to pay for it, and shipping address, there’s just nothing to go on. The Virginia Tech guy just seemed like any random Asia guy living in Blacksburg, Virginia. But every single person who’d actually met Cho in person found him to show signs of severe mental instability.


28 posted on 02/16/2008 9:52:43 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker
I don't think you understand how internet "gun sales" work. All firearms purchased from a licensed dealer have to have an ATF Form 4473 filled out and a background check done. "Buying" a gun on the internet still requires this to take place before the buyer can take possession of the gun. If the internet seller is in state, the buyer would be required to go to the licensed premises in person to fill out the form, provide ID and have the NICS check done. Once the background check is approved, the buyer can take possession of th gun. If the internet seller is in another state, the firearm must be sent to a licensed dealer in the buyer's home state, where the above must take place.

As for this latest shooting, the shooter had a valid FOID card in teh state of Illinois, so so much for gun licensing preventing crime.

29 posted on 02/16/2008 9:58:30 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Wis.-Based Internet Gun Dealer Sold Weapons, Accessories To NIU And Va. Tech Shooters

BS article, BS title. The whole article is meant to convey that somehow TopGlock was doing something illegal. Or that Nutcase got his hands on his guns illegally.

30 posted on 02/16/2008 10:13:58 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Benedict Arnold was against the Terrorist Surveillance Program)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
I live in Orange County, CA. Last year a family lost two young children when rear ended by a Tractor Trailer on the freeway. By using the logic based in this article, we’d better shut down all the Peterbilt Dealers in the country.
31 posted on 02/16/2008 10:20:11 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Guns don't kill people, gun free zones kill people)
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To: Resolute Conservative
Yeah and Ford, Chevy, and numerous car dealers have sold cars to people who drive recklessly or drunk or both and kill people.

And the only thing you need to buy one is money &/or 'good credit'.

No license, drivers or otherwise; no Auto Owners Identification Permit to buy the car, gasoline, or accessories; no background checks; no waiting periods; no limit on cosmetic "racing style" features; no limit on number of purchases per month....

32 posted on 02/16/2008 10:20:29 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (If Liberalism doesn't kill me, I'll live 'till I die!)
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To: chuckles
I got of Paxil a few months ago. It was not a pleasant experience. Lots of mood swings (which I still get today). However, I didn't kill anyone.. so I think the ssri and withdrawal is like beer, it may enhance an existing issue but doesn't cause it.

This guy had other problems way beyond the SSRI.
33 posted on 02/17/2008 6:42:59 AM PST by StolarStorm
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To: TNdandelion

It depends on the dosage you were on and for how long I think. I got a lot of symptoms that were similiar to what has been described as heroin symptoms. Shakes, vomitting,, dizziness, tunnel vision, crying fits and so forth. And I did taper slowly.


34 posted on 02/17/2008 6:45:43 AM PST by StolarStorm
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines

Each magazine can hold 33 bullets.

Is that true?????? I have a P-226 Sig but the maximum rounds its mags can hold is 15.....

35 posted on 02/17/2008 6:51:27 AM PST by Hot Tabasco ( Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
People who want to cause death and destruction will always find a way. The largest school massacre on record involved a bomb.
36 posted on 02/17/2008 7:02:04 AM PST by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: El Gato
But that doesn't explain why it did not catch the Army psycho discharge, nor how he got to be a prison guard with the "Section 8" on his DD-214.

Agreed, but it does not fit the MSM agenda to check these facts out. Why wasn't the section 8 caught?

37 posted on 02/17/2008 7:25:37 AM PST by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: coloradan
"The story is typical of the MSM’s hysteria."

Looks like the hysteria was fueled by the idiot business owner to me. Instead of pointing out any gun sales were done through an FFL with fed background check and sticking to that, he focused on mysterious BS mumbo jumbo and his bad feelings about being connected to it all.

38 posted on 02/17/2008 7:38:02 AM PST by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: Hot Tabasco
Each magazine can hold 33 bullets.

If you load it with 22's might hold that many.

39 posted on 02/17/2008 7:54:39 AM PST by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Fee
Exactly! The question is why isn’t that line of thought being pursued? Meanwhile the medicating of the children continues. My guess is that it actually changes the brain when given during the formative years and once that happens it is inevitable that disaster, of some kind, will result.
40 posted on 02/17/2008 7:59:57 AM PST by pepperdog
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