Fleet Farm to pay $1M, change gun policies under straw purchases settlement

Fleet Farm will make significant changes to its gun sale policies and pay $1 million under a settlement with the state of Minnesota.

The Attorney General’s Office sued the retailer in 2022 for selling guns to straw purchasers despite multiple red flags.

A judge declined to dismiss the case last October, and Attorney General Keith Ellison's office announced the settlement agreement Tuesday, Feb. 24.

“In our criminal justice system, we hold individuals accountable who harm others, and it is right that we do so,” Ellison stated in a news release.

“We do not need to stop there, though: we can also hold corporations like Fleet Farm accountable under civil law when they sell firearms to people they should suspect will re-sell those guns to dangerous individuals. This outcome should serve as a clear warning to any other gun dealers or retailers who would put their profit ahead of Minnesotans’ safety.”

According to the release, Fleet Farm agreed to multiple steps to prevent straw purchasers from buying a gun on someone else’s behalf, including:

• A specific list of warning signs of potential straw purchasing that employees must monitor and act upon, based on customers' purchase history and behavior in store, among other things
• Improved training for employees who sell firearms, including regular, unannounced compliance checks to ensure that employees identify and act on warning signs
• Software that allows employees to track gun sales across different stores and see alerts about suspicious buyers
• Updated discipline policies for employees who fail to notice warning signs
• A new trace request monitoring system that alerts employees about sales to persons linked to previously recovered crime guns

In October, the court highlighted the circumstances of Fleet Farm’s sales to two straw purchasers, and how one of the guns Fleet Farm sold to Jerome Horton was used in a mass shooting at the Truck Park Bar in St. Paul.

The 2021 shooting left one dead and 14 injured.

In the court order, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim rejected Fleet Farm's series of arguments, recognizing that licensed firearms dealers "are the first line of defense" against straw purchasing, with established federal guidance on straw purchasing red flags.

" ... Cory Klebs, a Fleet Farm manager for the Blaine store, reported his concern that Horton was a straw purchaser to Michelle Granato, one of Fleet Farm’s firearms compliance employees," Tunheim's order states, but Klebs “apparently never heard back” on his concerns.

Fleet Farm’s two firearms compliance employees later provided a company training on suspicious sales activity, using Fleet Farm’s July 2021 sales of guns to Horton as an example of what should raise a red flag.