GUN DEALER INDICTED IN ILLEGAL SALES DOCUMENTS FAKED TO CONCEAL BUYER, GRAND

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993                   TAG: 9302230277
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GUN DEALER INDICTED IN ILLEGAL SALES DOCUMENTS FAKED TO CONCEAL BUYER, GRAND
A longtime Roanoke gun dealer who said last year that he'd rather lose his license to sell firearms than knowingly sell a gun to a criminal may get his wish.
Max Caplan, owner of Capital Sales, a tiny Northwest Roanoke gun and pawn shop, has been indicted on charges of helping set up two "straw purchases" of handguns last year.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Roanoke, accuses Caplan of helping conceal the name of the true buyer of two pistols he sold in July and September.
According to the indictment, Caplan, who has been in the gun business for 50 years, knew that the person filling out the federal firearms purchasing record was not the actual buyer. And, the indictment says, Caplan knowingly sold the pistols anyway.
In addition, the indictment says, Caplan helped the two fake the federal firearms purchase documents.
Federal authorities said the illegal sales were arranged in order to bypass federal laws designed to help federal firearms agents keep track of people who make multiple gun purchases.
Assistant U.S Attorney Ruth Plagenhoef said Caplan could get a five-year sentence on each of two counts. If convicted, he could lose his license to sell firearms.
Contacted Monday about the indictment, Caplan said he did not know he had been charged. He said the two people involved in the sales were longtime customers. He declined to comment on the charges, except to say that he strictly obeys federal firearms control laws.
Caplan was interviewed last year in a series of stories the Roanoke Times & World-News ran called "Kids and Guns."
The series pointed out that juveniles often illegally obtain guns by getting adults to purchase them for them.
Caplan said in the interview that it is often hard for a gun dealer to know for sure if the buyer of the gun is buying for himself.
He said he would not sell a gun if he saw a juvenile choose it and give money to an adult to buy it.
But, he said, there's little he could do if two people come in looking at guns and one bought it, filled out all the forms and passed the instant background check.
"I don't know what they're going to do with it when they leave," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB