MOST FIREARMS DEALERS IN CITY WITHOUT STOREFRONTS

Bargain firearm shoppers need not wait for Wal-Mart or any other reputable sporting goods stores to carry sales before buying.

They just get a little help from their friends.

Of the more than 90 federally licensed firearm dealers in Cape Girardeau, only a handful are in it for the profit. The rest are in it to save money on buying firearms for themselves and their friends, says Police Chief Howard Boyd.

"There are not that many firearms dealers that have storefronts. I don't think they're in it to make a livelihood. It just gives them access to the wholesale firearms business," Boyd said.

Take Michael Lawrence, who has held a federal firearm license for over 20 years. Lawrence, actually a fictitious name the Southeast Missourian is using to protect his identity, says he got a license "to accommodate my friends.

"With a dealer's license, I could get things wholesale. And to be frank with you, most of us are in the business for that reason," said Lawrence, who sells firearms out of his downtown law office.

At least, that's the address listed on his firearm license, according to Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Firearms records.

Lawrence did not want to give his real name for fear that undesirables would burglarize his home and steal his aging cache of shotguns. Like most other firearm dealers, he shuns publicity.

"I sell only to people I know. If a stranger walked into my office, I'd say, I don't have time," said Lawrence, a lawyer who counts Cape Girardeau's U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh as one of his former customers.

Though Lawrence no longer sells many guns, other firearms dealers do. And businesses like Beard's Sports Shop complain that gun hobbyists are taking away their living.

"They just sell a bunch of guns that we would normally sell. They can sell them cheaper because they have no overhead," said Beard's manager Don Beard.

Beard estimates that individually licensed dealers can sell their wares for 10 percent less than he can. And the ease with which dealers can obtain licenses encourages more gun enthusiasts to infiltrate the market.

In Cape Girardeau County, 134 "businesses" can sell firearms, according to Rick Alexander, the ATF area supervisor in St. Louis. Across Missouri, there are roughly 8,000 such dealers, and the figure is rising.

"We are overwhelmed with applicants," Alexander said. Nationwide, the latest ATF figures show that 257,656 dealers are licensed to sell.

To apply for a license, a prospective dealer who has no felony convictions need only fill out an application and pay only $10 per year to retain the license. A reply can come within 45 days, says an ATF public affairs spokesman in Washington, D.C.

A license lasts for three years, and enables a dealer to buy and transport firearms across state lines without having to fill out much of the paperwork otherwise necessary, Alexander said.

"There's no required number of guns that have to be sold. But there must be a profit motive," Alexander said.

Not so, says Lawrence. "You don't have to prove crap. All you do is send them $30 and you get one (a license) for three years."

That could be changing. There's a movement in Congress to increase the yearly firearm license fee to $375 a year as part of a sweeping crime bill.

In fact, a similar proposal made last month by Illinois Democratic Sen. Paul Simon failed, confirmed Simon's aide, David Carle. However, that proposal was part of a broad package to approve next year's Treasury Department budget, which encompasses the ATF budget.

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, is on record as opposing such a move. "You may be assured that I am against gun control," Emerson said in a statement released by his Washington office. "From a practical standpoint, gun controls do not work. The only folks who would be affected are law-abiding gun owners."