Officials say girlfriend bought guns
By Mark Obmascik, Marilyn Robinson and David Olinger
Denver Post Staff Writers
April 27 - Three guns used in the massacre at Columbine High
School werebought last year by Dylan Klebold's girlfriend shortly
after her 18th birthday, investigators said Monday.
The woman was interviewed Monday by authorities, but not named as
a suspect.
Though police declined to say where she bought the firearms, the
manager of the Tanner Gun Show, a weapons market held nine times
a year at the Denver Merchandise Mart, confirmed that the U.S.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Monday asked for a
list of recent exhibitors.
The same gun show was the subject of controversy in June when an
exhibitor sold an SKS semiautomatic rifle with a 20-round clip to
an undercover congressional staffer for $200 cash. The staffer
never was asked for any identification for a background check.
In the case of the Columbine weapons, prosecutors said three of
the four guns - the woman bought two shotguns and a rifle - fired
in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history may have been
purchased legally.
"We think three of them were provided by the girlfriend of
Klebold,'' said Mark Paulter, a Jefferson County chief deputy
district attorney. "She bought them because she was older.
She was 18 at the time. She bought them in November or December.
"We're not sure she committed a crime under Colorado
statute. If you provide a handgun to a person under 18, that's a
violation of the statute. If you provide a shotgun or a rifle,
that's not a violation.''
District Attorney Dave Thomas said the woman's intent with the
weapons was unclear. "I don't know when it happened or what
information she had about the purpose for the weapons,'' Thomas
said.
The woman, a National Honor Society member who turned 18 on Nov.
4, could not be reached for comment. At her Jefferson County home
Monday, a man who drove into the driveway shouted to reporters:
"You're terrorizing the mother.''
Jefferson County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Parr said the woman was
interviewed "as a witness and she is not considered a
suspect.''
Disclosures about the guns Monday gave the first public hints at
the way police are broadening the investigation into last week's
rampage that killed 15, hospitalized 23 and shocked the nation.
They also focused attention on the way powerful firearms may be
bought and sold by teenagers still attending high school.
President Clinton today will call for tighter regulation of gun
shows while announcing an anti-crime package today, congressional
sources said.
On their April 20 rampage at Columbine High School, Klebold, 17,
and Eric Harris, 18, packed an arsenal of an Intratec TEC-DC9
semiautomatic handgun, a HiPoint 9mm semiautomatic carbine and
two sawed-off shotguns. It's illegal for anyone to saw the barrel
off shotguns, the weapons that Klebold and Harris apparently used
to kill themselves in the school library.
Investigators still don't know how the two killers obtained the
TEC-DC9, the DA said.
In addition, police disclosed Monday that the two killers had
more bombs than previously reported. Denver Police Detective Alex
Woods said, "Bomb squad members handled 67 unexploded
devices at the scene and at Harris' house.'' Police earlier said
the two killers had at least 30 bombs.
But it was the trail of firearms that made the most news from the
investigation Monday. The Tanner Gun Show organizers said the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms requested a list of
everyone who exhibited guns at the Tanner show's Nov. 21-22 and
Dec. 12-13 sales. Show organizers said they keep a master list of
everyone who exhibits guns at a table, be it a licensed firearms
dealer or a private, unlicensed collector.
"The ATF has called me, and they're looking into it,'' said
Carol Blodgett, who coordinates the exhibitors' tables for the
Tanner gun shows at the Merchandise Mart.
"They didn't mention any names,'' she said. "They just
wanted to know if I had records of who comes to the show'' to
sell guns.
Gun show owner Jimmie Tanner said, "That's what I
understand, they're zeroing in on November or December.'' He said
the ATF did not specify who it was looking for, but made it clear
this was connected with the Columbine High massacre. "I'm
sure they have somebody in mind,'' he said.
ATF spokesman Larry Bettendorf declined to comment.
Tanner said most gun sellers he knows wouldn't sell firearms to
an 18-year-old. "The normal person at a gun show won't deal
with juveniles of any kind,'' he said.
He was upset to hear that Clinton and others are proposing
additional gun controls. He also objected to the idea of
increased regulation of gun shows. "First of all, it's
unconstitutional. Secondly, it identifies a class of people who
have been persecuted for a number of years, and it's getting
pretty severe.''
Asked if he has a problem with overzealous regulation of guns, he
said, "I've had that problem for 70 years.'' Tanner is 72.
The Tanner show, which regularly leases space at the Merchandise
Mart, canceled a show there last weekend, just days after the
Columbine High massacre. Because the Merchandise Mart is just
outside Denver city limits,
the gun show doesn't have to comply with the city's stricter gun
control laws, which ban several assault weapons, including the
TEC-DC9 used at Columbine High School.
In Congress, Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, who supports more
government regulation of firearms, called it "an eerie
coincidence'' that weapons from the Columbine High killings
apparently were obtained from the Tanner Gun Show.
Last June, one of her staffers purchased the SKS rifle from the
same show to demonstrate the ease of obtaining an assault weapon
with no record of the purchase.
"They didn't ask for ID. They didn't ask for anything,'' she
said. "They sold it for about $200 cash, no questions asked.
These gun shows are a massive loophole to the Brady bill.''
In the wake of the Columbine High tragedy, "I think there
are two things we need to do,'' DeGette said. "First,
recognize that this is a very deep societal problem, this problem
of youth violence. The second thing that we can do on a
legislative level is make it harder, and in my opinion nearly
impossible, for kids to get their hands on guns.''
The 18-year-old Columbine woman questioned by police Monday lives
in a brick home at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the Stony
Creek neighborhood.
Also contributing to this report were Denver Post staff writers
Howard Pankratz, Peter G. Chronis, Peggy Lowe, Patricia Callahan,
Kevin Simpson and Sean Kelly.
Thank you for visiting the Coloradans United Against Hatred Website