COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Channel 2 Action News investigation finds you could legally buy a stolen gun and never know it.
Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray found a loophole in the law left a young Cobb County man facing a felony charge even though he did nothing wrong.
The 23-year-old Kennesaw State University student only found out his gun that he bought at a federally licensed gun dealer is listed as a stolen police gun in law enforcement records when police arrested him and threw him in jail for three days.
“Can you to this day think of any way you could have known this gun was stolen?” asked Gray.
“No,” answered Jarrett Franco Modica.
The 23-year-old was charged with a felony. A judge even ruled no bond.
“I’m like what’s happening? I started shaking and panic attacking,” said Modica.
He had a stolen gun in his glove compartment.
“He was like ‘Can I check the gun?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, 100%,’” said Modica.
It was not just any stolen gun, but a stolen police gun.
“He was like, hey, hands behind your back,” said Modica.
He had called police out to Atlanta Road himself in December to file an accident report.
“I hear the computer chime and it says gun’s stolen out of Union City Police Department in 2016,” said Modica.
He spent the next three days behind bars.
He’s charged with theft by receiving firearm.
But Modica has proof he never stole that gun.
“Yeah, so what is this?” asked Gray.
“It’s a Jimenez Arms, it’s the one I bought. It’s the receipt,” said Modica.
He bought the handgun legally shortly after turning 21.
“We just go shooting, you know, practice, stress relief, you know typical American way,” said Modica.
His receipt shows the same serial number as on the incident report and criminal warrant for his arrest.
“I just can’t wrap my head around how a stolen gun gets sold,” said Modica.
But under current law what happened to him cold happen to any legal gun buyer in Georgia or across the country.
An FBI Department of Justice FAQ states:
“…federal law does not require FFLs to verify whether firearms offered to them for sale have been previously reported as stolen…”
“You didn’t buy it from some guy on the street, you didn’t buy it at a gun show even, you went to the largest gun store in Georgia,” said Gray.
“Yeah… where there’s a counter, where there is, they check IDs,” said Modica.
“How does this happen?” asked Gray.
“Well, this specific instance it’s a firearm that was traded in to us,” said Eric Wallace, the general manager of Adventure Outdoors in Cobb County.
It’s one of the country’s largest gun dealers.
Their records confirm they sold the gun to Modica.
“We do everything we can to make sure that we’re not buying a stolen firearm,” said Wallace.
A 2022 federal law makes it easier for federally licensed dealers like Adventure Outdoors to voluntarily check if guns are stolen by directly accessing the federal database NICS.
“We take in 10,000 to 12,000 used firearms a year, and there’s measures that we have in place,” said Wallace.
We pulled the user manual for the NICS.
It shows dealers can type in a serial number and see if the gun has been reported stolen.
Wallace said they regularly do that and more.
“If it’s a stolen firearm, this is the last place you want to bring it because they will have a problem,” said Wallace.
But in this case Wallace said there was no suspicion the gun was stolen because it came directly from Union City Police.
“We often get evidence guns traded into us so that a police department can purchase duty gear,” said Wallace.
Channel 2 Action News filed an open records request for the gun’s serial number with Union City.
In 2016 it was placed in the evidence room after being confiscated during a theft investigation.
“It was a paperwork error from that police department,” said Wallace.
A paperwork error nearly a decade ago now has Modica facing a life changing felony charge.
The warrant says he knew or should have known the gun was stolen.
“Nobody was listening to me saying that this is a big misunderstanding,” said Modica.
Gray checked with the Cobb County District Attorney.
They still have not dropped the charge telling him it is under investigation.
Adventure Outdoors said they see this happen once or twice a year.
But in the past, police have called them to check records before making any arrest.
A gun buyer cannot check the federal database, only police and dealers can.
Wallace recommends buying from a federally licensed dealer, take a picture with your phone of that sales receipt, and save the receipt in a safe place like Modica did.
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