CR Sales Firearms, one of three local dealers named in a still-ongoing 2020 lawsuit alleging their involvement in a gun-running scheme, has settled with Kansas City.
Under the terms of the settlement, CR Sales Firearms will pay a fine of $150,000 through its insurer but denies the lawsuit's allegations and does not admit to any liability. Additionally, CR Sales Firearms will be required to retrain staff on how to identify straw purchases, limit the number of handguns purchased by new customers to two per month, record all firearm purchases on video, and allow an independent auditor to access the business' in-store customer profile database during surprise drop-in inspections. These conditions will persist through the fiscal year 2027.
"Today's settlement is an important step in reducing the flow of illegal guns into our city," said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. "As we work to save the lives of Kansas Citians — fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandparents, and sadly, children — reducing the flow of illegal guns will remain a priority."
According to the lawsuit, the operation's ringleader was a former Kansas City firefighter named James Samuels. In January of 2021, Samuels, 55, was sentenced to six years of prison and three years of supervised release after admitting to purchasing 77 guns and transferring over half of them to third parties while charging a $50 fee. Over $11,000 in cash was seized from Samuel's residence at the time of his arrest and the former firefighter captain was ordered to pay this sum as a fine.
The lawsuit claims that the "gun dealer defendants," including CR Sales Firearms, "should have known" that straw purchasing was likely to "place guns into the hands of prohibited persons."
"Because they knew, or consciously avoided knowing that Samuels was dealing in firearms without the required federal license," the lawsuit argues, CR Sales Firearms "aided and abetted Samuels' illegal conduct."
Conceal & Carry and Mission Ready Gunworks, the two firearms dealers also named in the 2020 lawsuit, are no longer in operation.
