Federal agents allegedly discovered a dumpster full of working shotguns outside an Oklahoma City gun store.
The agent claimed a Midwest City sanitation worker found just under 250 working firearms in a dumpster outside the International Firearm Corporation. The worker called the police, who notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF agents reported they recovered 236 Radikal Arms, model NK-1 12-gage bullpup shotguns from the dumpster. Although some firearms had been cut, the ATF claimed that many still functioned.
The Radikal Arms, model NK-1, is a magazine-fed 12-gage bullpup shotgun. The shotgun uses standard 1919 magazines and costs at least $400. The shotgun is one of many semi-automatic shotguns that are imported from Turkey.
In late 2022 the owner of International Firearm Corporation, Anthony Mussatto, called the ATF and asked them how to dispose of guns with manufacturer’s defects. The ATF allegedly told him to cut the firearms into three sections. According to a January 26 search warrant, the ATF claims that the firearms recovered did have some cuts but were not cut in three places according to the ATF’s requirements. The documents claim that the guns were only partially cut with a single cut through the magazine well up into the ejection port allowing the firearms to be fired and to cycle.
When investigating the firearms in the dumpster, the ATF agents were approached by two men who claimed that the store had been disposing of guns in the dumpster on multiple occasions over the past few months. One of the men, Mike Keenum, said a teen employee had been cutting the shotguns outside the store multiple times a week. Mr. Keenum approached the employee about buying a few of the guns. The employee gave Keenum a couple of uncut firearms and magazines for free. Keenum claims that he just wanted the guns to hang on his wall, but the guns were functional. The ATF claims this could mean that the store employee let Keenum skip the mandatory federal background check that all federal firearms licensees (FFL) are required to run.
“Mr. Keenum told the man that he did not intend to shoot the guns, but rather wanted to hang the firearms on his wall,” an ATF agent said in the warrant. “The male employee permitted Mr. Keenum to take two uncut firearms and gave Mr. Keenum two magazines, one for each firearm.”
The ATF obtained search warrants for Mr. Mussatto’s home and his businesses. The ATF is seeking to see if the guns that were given to Mr. Keenum were documented. The ATF is also looking into whether Mussatto lied to investigators in 2022 and whether Mussatto violated gun disposal laws by improperly disposing of firearms.
The story has many unanswered questions. If the ATF is correct and the guns functioned, why would an FFL dispose of nearly $100,000 worth of guns? Why would an employee give away two working firearms to a man he had never met before? Why would Mr. Keenum approach ATF agents and admit to participating in an alleged illegal firearms transfer? Did Mr. Mussatto know the employee wasn’t making the proper cuts? Many questions will be answered in court if the ATF charges Mr. Mussatto with a crime. As of right now, no charges have been filed.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
