A Hampton man was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for selling at least 49 firearms unlawfully.
According to court documents, Anthony Gale Turner, 54, was a federally licensed dealer of firearms beginning in 2018. Turner owned and operated his firearms business, G7 Worldwide LLC, out of his residence on Pratt Street in Hampton. The investigation of Turner was launched when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) traced a handgun seized in Canada in 2020 back to the original purchaser. The original purchaser admitted to ATF agents that they completed the federal form required to purchase the firearm and provided Turner with their Virginia driver’s license for the transaction. However, the original purchaser told agents they never paid for the firearm nor ever took possession of it. Instead, Turner transferred the firearm to a prior convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms.
Through the course of the investigation, ATF interviewed five other straw purchasers of firearms from G7 Worldwide who independently stated Turner completed firearms transaction with their information by similar means between 2018 and 2021. Over the span of less than two years, 46 out of the 49 firearms that were subjects of charges in Turner’s case were transferred from Turner to two known, prior-convicted felons through the five straw purchasers. Three other firearms were directly purchased by prior convicted felons themselves after informing Turner of their prohibited status. The final firearm was unlawfully sold to a known out-of-state resident in violation of Turner’s duties as a licensed firearms dealer. Eight of the firearms are in law enforcement custody after being seized in connection with criminal activity in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Craig Kailimai, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Washington Field Division, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wilson Hanes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Osyf prosecuted the case.
Read more at the Justice Department
