An Oklahoma gun dealer agreed to plead guilty on May 17 to one felony count as the result of a June 16, 2023 raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
If the agreement is approved by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, Russell Fincher, 53, of Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, will be sentenced to three years probation. Two other counts against him will be dropped.
“As part of the plea agreement, Fincher admitted ... that on May 5, 2023, he knowingly sold 60 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition to an individual he had reason to believe was a felon. Fincher also admitted that between February 2021 and June 2023, he unlawfully engaged in the business of dealing in firearms without a license,” a press release on the U.S. Attorney’s website states.
With a felony record, Mr. Fincher would no longer be able to hold a federal firearms license or own or possess firearms.
Mr. Fincher was initially 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 on Nov. 15, 2023.
According to the indictment, Mr. Fincher could be imprisoned for up to five years on the first count, up to 15 years on the second count, and one year for the misdemeanor. He could also have been fined up to $250,000.
When contacted by text message, Mr. Fincher had no comment, nor did his attorney, Brian Deer, nor spokespersons for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and the ATF.
The indictment accused Mr. Fincher of buying and selling guns without a federal firearms license from Feb. 2, 2021, to June 16, 2023. While that charge would be dropped under the proposed plea deal, Mr. Fincher would be required to admit that it’s true.
He has repeatedly denied the allegation to The Epoch Times.
In an interview with The Epoch Times last December, Mr. Fincher recalled the day the ATF raided his home in Tuskahoma.
On that day in June 2023, ATF agents handcuffed him, searched his property, and questioned his 13-year-old son.
That morning, Mr. Fincher and his son, Parker, were preparing to attend a gun show in Tulsa when 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.
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 the ATF had always displayed an air of professional courtesy. But when he 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 where he sold ammunition. One day, an employee called him 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.
Can’t Sell to Felons
Federal law prohibits a felon from possessing ammunition. Only six states require background checks for ammunition sales, and Oklahoma is not one of them.He said the agents accused him of selling guns to criminals and told him to warn other federal firearms license holders that they were coming for them.
According to Mr. Fincher, when the agents left, they took guns, parts, and accessories. The court documents outlining the plea deal also list firearms to be sold by another gun dealer for Mr. Finch. It also contains a longer list of weapons to be forfeited to the ATF.
The ATF agents also took his federal firearms license, which he agreed to relinquish in an effort to appease the agents.
