On July 25, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced that an Aurora man, Timothy Taconi, had been sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license. Taconi was previously a federally licensed gun dealer, but he had his license revoked in 2019 after an inspection by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) uncovered 600 violations of federal law.
Taconi also agreed to pay back more than $190,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans he took out to run his illegal firearms business. To learn more about the gun makers and dealers who received PPP loans during the pandemic despite record-breaking sales, click here.
The case is yet another example of a gun dealer allowing weapons to fall into the wrong hands, as discussed here.
violating gun laws
According to court documents, Taconi became a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) in March 2015, and like the majority of gun dealers in the U.S., he operated his business, A-TAC Arms, out of his home. But in 2018, a confidential informant notified the ATF that Taconi was selling firearms at a gun show in Wisconsin. When the informant told Taconi had “had some run-ins” with the law, Taconi said that he’d sell the man a gun from his personal collection, without filling out any paperwork or conducting a background check, in violation of the law.
In September of that year, ATF agents approached Taconi at another gun show in Wisconsin and warned him that selling firearms to Wisconsin residents was illegal, as FFLs “may only sell firearms at gun shows within the State in which their licensed premises is located.” They gave Taconi a warning letter and pamphlet reminding him of the rules.
Then, in December 2018, an ATF investigator conducted an inspection at Taconi’s residence and uncovered over 600 individual violations of the Gun Control Act in 16 different categories, including:
- 54 violations for selling 56 firearms to 54 different out-of-state customers at 26 out-of-state gun shows;
- 110 violations for failing to run background checks on customers;
- 43 violations for selling handguns to out-of-state residents, including 30 transactions that took place after Taconi received his warning in September;
- 59 violations for failing to maintain Form 4473 transaction records;
- Three violations for selling guns to three convicted felons, who are prohibited from owning firearms, after failing to run background check on them; and
- Over 300 other violations, like failing to maintain inventory records, failing to report lost or stolen firearms, and failing to report multiple firearms sales, or when customers purchase two or more handguns within five consecutive business days.
In April 2019, the ATF notified Taconi that it would revoke his license to deal in firearms. According to court documents, in his revocation hearing, Taconi said that he didn’t believe one of the ATF agents he had spoken to at the Wisconsin gun show was a “real” agent, that he did not really read the warning letter or pamphlet he was given, and that his wife pressured him to conduct the out-of-state sales and “did not agree with the importance of certain firearms sales requirements.”
ghost guns and silencers
Taconi’s FFL was revoked in August 2019, and he was fined $24,486 for selling three firearms to convicted felons. But according to the recent announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, Taconi “engaged in the business” of selling firearms without a license from August 2020 until February 2023. He also admitted to manufacturing and selling untraceable ghost guns as well as unregistered silencers.
In that announcement, ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Ashbridge said, “Despite multiple warnings, Taconi intentionally and repeatedly chose to illegally sell firearms and manufacture ghost guns, what we call Privately Made Firearms, nationwide, particularly along the US-Mexican border. His actions significantly increased the risk of violent gun crime, putting our families and communities in great danger.”
Taconi’s sentencing comes after the ATF published a report in April identifying unlicensed dealers as the top source of firearms for gun traffickers, representing 41 percent of trafficking investigations — or 3,404 cases — between 2017 and 2021, ahead of straw purchasers and thefts from FFLs.