NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A Hampton man was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Tuesday, July 25 for unlawfully selling at least 49 firearms.
According to court documents, 54-year-old Anthony Gale Turner was a federally licensed firearms dealer since 2018. His business, G7 Worldwide LLC, was operated from his home in Hampton.
Turner was caught after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, traced a handgun seized in Canada in 2020 to the registered purchaser.
The owner admitted they had filled out the federal form, and provided their license for the transaction, but never took possession of the gun or paid for it. Instead, Turner transferred the gun to a convicted felon who couldn’t purchase a gun themselves. This is referred to as “straw purchasing.”
During the investigation, it was revealed that Turner used this method with five other straw purchasers, who admitted that Turned used their information to complete the transactions between 2018 and 2021.
Over the span of two years, 46 out of the 49 firearms in Turner’s case were transferred to two convicted felons through the five straw purchasers. Three additional firearms were directly purchased from Turner by convicted felons after informing him of their prohibited status. Turner also sold to an out-of-state resident in violation of his license.
Eight of the firearms are in police custody in connection to criminal activity in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.
