An Oklahoma gun dealer has been indicted on two felony and one misdemeanor counts as a result of a June 16 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on his home in Pushmataha County.
On Nov. 15, Russell Fincher was indicted on one count of engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license, one count of selling ammunition to a prohibited person, and one misdemeanor count of making false entries in records by a federal firearms dealer.
According to the indictment, Mr. Fincher faces up to five years in prison on the first count, up to 15 years in prison for the second count, and one year for the misdemeanor. He also faces fines for each count. His trial is set for July 2, 2024.
Mr. Fincher did not comment on the indictment, citing advice from his public defender, Brian Deer. Mr. Deer did not return messages seeking comment.
Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, nor the ATF responded to requests for comment.
The indictment accuses Mr. Fincher of buying and selling guns without a Federal Firearms License from Feb. 2, 2021, to June 16, 2023. It also accuses him of selling a box of ammunition to a felon and entering incorrect information in his records.
On that day in June, ATF agents raided Mr. Fincher’s home, handcuffing him and searching his house and property. Mr. Fincher said the armed agents questioned him and his 13-year-old son, Parker.
That morning, Mr. Fincher and Parker were preparing to go to a gun show in Tulsa. Then the telephone rang.
The caller, an ATF agent, told Mr. Fincher not to leave because they needed to discuss a serial number issue found during a previous inspection of his records. Mr. Fincher said he had no reason to expect trouble. He told the caller he would wait.
Within minutes, Mr. Fincher saw seven or eight vehicles coming up his driveway. They spread across his front yard, and men in tactical gear and carrying rifles got out and approached his house.
In an interview with The Epoch Times last September, Mr. Fincher said he was shocked by the raid. He said his relationship with the ATF before that day had an air of professional courtesy. When agents asked him to stay home that day because they needed to talk, he expected the same official visit he’d always had.
But when Mr. Fincher looked out his window that morning, he realized this visit was different. “I didn’t know what to think,” Mr. Fincher said.
He said they questioned him about a gun he had legally traded at a gun show several years before that had turned up at a crime scene in California. They also asked him about a box of ammunition he sold just a few days before the raid.
Mr. Fincher owned a small shop in Clayton, Oklahoma, from which he sold ammunition. He said an employee called him one day and said there was a man in the store “acting weird.”
The man was not the usual rancher, outdoorsman, or hunter that normally patronized his business. Mr. Fincher didn’t know the man, who was sporting a prominent neck tattoo and appeared nervous. Then, the man asked if Mr. Fincher would sell him a gun.
“I told him I don’t sell guns from that store,” Mr. Fincher said.
The would-be customer pressed him, and Mr. Fincher averred that he could sell him a gun. But he told him again that he didn’t run the gun business from the store. Then, the prospective customer announced that he was a felon.
“I told him I would not sell him a gun because that’s illegal. I can’t sell guns to a convicted felon,” Mr. Fincher said.
The man bought a box of ammunition, which Mr. Fincher contended was not a crime, and left the store.
‘A State Issue’
He said the agents accused him of selling guns to criminals and told him to warn his other federal firearms license holders because they were coming for them, too.According to Mr. Fincher, when the agents left, they took guns, parts, and accessories. They also took his federal firearms license, which he agreed to relinquish in an effort to appease the agents.
Republican Oklahoma State Rep. Justin Humphrey has requested that Oklahoma Attorney General Genter Drummond’s office investigate the case. He said this is his second request for an investigation, as state officials directed his first request to the U.S. Attorney’s office for investigation.
Mr. Humphrey said that is a conflict of interest and that the state should be investigating possible improprieties within its own borders.
“The group that’s prosecuting Mr. Fincher is the same group that’s supposed to check this out. This is a state issue,” Mr. Humphrey told The Epoch Times.
A representative from a Second Amendment advocacy group denounced the raid and resulting indictment as an example of government overreach to push an anti-gun agenda.
Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, said Mr. Fincher is just one more citizen targeted by President Joe Biden’s administration.
“It sounds like he was trying to follow the law,” Mr. Johnston told The Epoch Times.
“Biden’s zero-tolerance for honest mistakes that Mr. Fincher might have made is a disgrace to the ATF and a total attack on our Second Amendment rights.”
