The owner of Diamondback Police Supply, Doug MacKinlay, has canceled Mark Kelly’s publicity stunt purchase of AR-15 made on March 5. MacKinlay determined that due to Kelly’s admissions that his purchase was not for personal use, it was in his “company’s best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store to complete the Federal From 4473 and NICS background check required of Mr. Kelly before he could take possession this firearm.
MacKinlay, whose store is located at 170 South Kolb Road in Tucson, Arizona, posted on his company’s Facebook page that he canceled the transaction March 21. MacKinlay sent by express mail a full refund to Kelly.
“While I support and respect Mark Kelly’s 2nd Amendment rights to purchase, possess, and use firearms in a safe and responsible manner, his recent statements to the media made it clear that his intent in purchasing the Sig Sauer M400 5.56mm rifle from us was for reasons other then for his personal use,” wrote MacKinlay. “In light of this fact, I determined that it was in my company’s best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store to complete the Federal From 4473 and NICS background check required of Mr. Kelly before he could take possession this firearm. A full refund was sent to Mr. Kelly, via express mail, on Thursday of last week.”
MacKinlay intends to donate the Sig Sauer rifle to the Arizona Tactical Officers Association for a raffle to generate funds for the association to purchase tactical equipment for the organization’s members. MacKinlay wrote, “The A.T.O. A. represents the SWAT and Special Response officers of the state’s law enforcement community who regularly place their lives on the line to protect the residents of this state.”
“Additionally, Diamondback Police Supply will make a $1295.00 contribution (the selling price of the M400 rifle) to the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program that teaches children, in pre-K through 3rd grade, four important steps to take if they find a gun. The emphasis of the program is on child safety, something that is important to all of us and at the core of the current debate on gun control,” stated MacKinlay.
Mark Kelly scrambled to defend the stunt purchase on CNN and offered a tortured explanation of his purchase to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. After the picture of Kelly’s purchase emerged on Facebook and in Brietbart, Kelly went into full damage control and told Blitzer that he bought it “to have firsthand knowledge about how easy it is or difficult it is” to purchase such a gun. “For a weapon that’s so deadly and really designed for the military, especially with the high-capacity magazines, … it’s too easy. It really shouldn’t be.”
Kelly then claimed that on his Facebook page that he plans to give the gun to the Tucson Police Department. “I just had a background check a few days ago when I went to my local gun store to buy a 45. As I was leaving, I noticed a used AR-15. Bought that too. Even to buy an assault weapon, the background check only takes a matter of minutes. I don’t have possession yet, but I’ll be turning it over to the Tucson PD when I do. Scary to think of people buying guns like these without a background check at a gun show or the Internet. We really need to close the gun-show and private-seller loophole,” he posted on his page.
Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com wrote of Kelly’s response on the gun purchase application that he would not transfer the gun to another party, “When you purchase a firearm at a federally licensed dealer, you must fill out an ATF 4473 form. It is a felony to lie on the form and say you are purchasing a firearm for yourself when it’s really for someone else, but Kelly did it anyway.”
Almost immediately James T Harris, a popular radio host was contacted by a friend of Giffords who wanted to expose what they believed was the manipulation of Giffords, and sent a picture of a smiling Gabby Giffords holding an AR-15. Harris released the photo that was taken at a gun range “facility” in Tucson. He said that according to his source, Giffords personally requested the photograph after shooting the AR-15.
Immediately after the picture was released, in desperation, operatives posted on Facebook a defense of Kelly allegedly written by Giffords.
That posting set off a firestorm of criticism of Kelly’s use of his wife to defend his stunt and in his effort to promote what he had hoped would be a bright political future.
Kelly was on vacation in Laguna, California according to his spokesperson, Pia Carusone, and could not be reched for comment. He couldn’t avoid the press though and became the subject of more controversy when his daughter’s dog attacked and killed a baby sea lion near an exclusive resort on Saturday
According to an AP report, Kelly’s daughter tried to pull her dog, an American Pit Bull Terrier, from the sea lion as two other women help, while a male voice off camera continues to shout, “drown the dog.” After a period of time, Kelly stepped in and wrestled the animal free. The group then leaves the scene and the sea lion appears to wash out to sea.
One of the spokeswomen for Kelly’s gun control political committee said the dog was crated up and then the family talked to officers. Police say the dog broke from its leash, and no laws were broken.