Osage Beach gun store owner indicted for allowing straw purchases; over 300 firearms seized

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A federal grand jury has indicted the owner of Skelton Tactical, a gun store in Osage Beach, for illegally selling firearms to undercover agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

James Antonio Skelton, 74, of Kaiser, Mo., was charged in a 15-count indictment that was unsealed Tuesday morning.

The federal indictment alleges that Skelton, a federal firearms licensee, used his business to illegally sell firearms by allowing straw purchases; which is allowing customers to purchase firearms on behalf of another person who is the actual buyer, but for whom there is no background check or information recorded.

Federal agents at the gun store executed a search warrant on Nov. 9, and agents seized 323 firearms from Skelton following the investigation. The federal indictment contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Skelton to forfeit all of those firearms to the government.

The federal indictment charges Skelton with four counts of failing to keep proper records mandated for federally licensed dealers, four counts of failing to conduct background checks related to those sales, two counts of false records in a firearms transaction and with five counts of failing to make appropriate entries in a required record.