Man suspected for illegal gun buying

A 55-year-old La Mesa man was arrested on suspicion of illegally buying guns and ammunition in Arizona and bringing them to California, federal agents said Tuesday.

David Morgan was arrested Thursday by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said ATF special agent Michael Hoffman.

Agents seized 48 firearms — including modified firearms, handguns and rifles — and more than 200,000 rounds of various kinds of ammunition from Morgan’s home in the 4300 block of Avon Drive in La Mesa, according to Hoffman.

Morgan is accused of falsifying information and using a fictitious address to get a valid Arizona identification card, Hoffman said. Investigators said Morgan would then use the identification to buy guns in Arizona, then bring them to his home.

“This is a common scheme used by firearms traffickers, where they exploit less restrictive laws in neighboring states to purchase large numbers of firearms and then transport those firearms into California,” said John A. Torres, special agent in charge of ATF’s Los Angeles office. “We also see this same type of scenario employed by organizations trafficking firearms from the United States into Mexico.”

Morgan has no known criminal history. Investigators have not said what Morgan intended to do with the guns.

This story was written and edited by City News Service.

Tags: atf san diego, explosives, firearms, michael hoffman, san diego alcohol, SDNN, Tobacco

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