Former Versailles Gun Shop Owner Pleads Guilty to Firearms Charges

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
June 13, 2017
Posted in: Crime and Police News

The outspoken owner of a Versailles gun shop that closed abruptly a few months ago has pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of illegal firearms, tampering with evidence and witness tampering.

Erik D. Lowry, 37, former owner of Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms on Walnut Street, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Acting U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song said today in a prepared statement.

In conjunction with Lowry's guilty plea, a guilty plea to a charge of illegally selling firearms also was entered on behalf of Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms.

Prosecutors allege that Lowry sold firearms at his store and through gun shows on what he called a "cash-and-carry" basis in which he failed to determine whether or not his customers had a criminal record.

In addition, they claim, Lowry acquired what federal officials classified as a "destructive device" --- a 12-gauge shotgun with a high-capacity drum magazine --- but failed to register it, as required, with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Instead, as federal agents investigated his store, prosecutors said, Lowry falsified paperwork and contacted several people in an attempt to help him destroy or dispose of the shotgun.

Lowry faces up to 50 years in prison and a $750,000 fine when he is sentenced Oct. 23 before U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab, Song said.

Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms billed itself as "America's Largest Online Firearms Mall" and attracted local attention with its black-and-gold advertising.

Its sharply worded signs on Walnut Street often attacked politicians who were viewed as pro-gun control, as when signs urged customers to "stock up" on guns and ammunition in the event that Hillary Clinton was elected president.

In January 2017, after two people were shot in McKeesport, Lowry urged residents to come to his store and purchase a weapon for protection. The sale, the store said, was for people who “don’t want to be victims anymore.”

In 2013, the store made national headlines as well for giving away hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as an AR-15 on its Facebook page.

When Lowry and the store were verbally attacked for holding the raffles by former Pittsburgh radio talk show host Tim Benz, Benz stepped down as co-host of the morning show on WXDX-FM (105.9).

But behind the scenes, federal prosecutors allege, Lowry was selling guns without completing any of the required paperwork.

Between 2014 and January 2016, prosecutors charge, Lowry sold 100 firearms "off the books" in what he referred to as "cash and carry," "cash out the door" or "turn and burn" sales, never completing the required paperwork for either how he acquired the weapons or how he sold them.

"Some of these transactions involved military-style weapons and the ATF has expended significant resources attempting to locate and recover these illegally sold firearms," Song said.

In January 2016, ATF agents doing a routine inspection visited the store and found what prosecutors called "numerous significant and clear violations of the law," including 27 guns displayed that Lowry allegedly said he was "willing to sell without completing any paperwork."

Prosecutors further allege that in the summer of 2015, Lowry acquired a Striker 12 shotgun with a rotating drum magazine to feed ammunition into the chamber.

The original Striker 12, designed in South Africa, was marketed to police and paramilitary agencies in the 1980s. U.S. versions made from 1989 to 1993 were sold as "Street Sweepers" because of their rapid-fire capability.

In 1994, federal authorities classified the Striker 12 as a "destructive device" with "no sporting purpose" under the National Firearms Act of 1934 and made purchase of the weapon subject to registration with the ATF.

But after Lowry acquired the shotgun, Song said, he never filed the proper paperwork.

Instead, according to investigators, when agents in 2016 discovered that Lowry owned an unregistered Striker 12, he "attempted to conceal his actions by contacting multiple people to have them hide or destroy the unregistered Striker 12 by throwing it in a dumpster, in order to, he said, avoid federal prison."

When that failed, Song said, Lowry contacted the previous owner of the weapon and created a fake story about the date, time and manner of the acquisition. The falsified paperwork was then provided to ATF, Song said.

The store, located near Olympia Shopping Center in a residential neighborhood, closed abruptly in February 2017 with a terse Facebook announcement. WPXI-TV (11) in Pittsburgh later reported that Lowry and the store were under federal investigation.

Song said the investigation revealed that while Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms was in business, the store had made firearms sales in several instances:

• Without criminal background checks being performed;
• To people with criminal records who were prohibited from owning firearms; and
• With falsified documents.

In one case, according to Song, the store sold a firearm to a person who had a previous mental health commitment. That person had been turned away by two other gun dealers who did perfom background checks before the person came to Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms, Song said.

Song described the activities at Pittsburgh Tactical Firearms as unusual, saying that routine inspections at gun shops "reveal that the majority of gun dealers diligently ensure that firearms are sold to law-abiding citizens, thereby enhancing the safety of the public."

The case is being prosecuted under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a collaborative effort by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and communities to prevent, deter and prosecute gun crimes, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross E. Lenhardt, a federal prosecutor with the Violent Crime Section of the Office of the United States Attorney, represented the federal government in court.

The investigation was conducted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in cooperation with the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office, the spokeswoman said.

Originally published June 13, 2017.

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