Straw gun buyer suspected in Kan. Jewish Center shootings

KANSAS CITY - Police are investigating how a felon charged with three shooting deaths at two Jewish community sites in Overland Park, Kan., was able to gain possession of both a shotgun and a handgun, reports the Kansas City Star.

Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, has been charged with one count of capital murder for the deaths of a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe. Cross also faces one count of first-degree, premeditated murder for the death of a woman who was gunned down while visiting her mother at a nearby retirement complex.

None of the three people killed in the attacks was Jewish.

A law enforcement source familiar with the case told the Star that investigators believe Cross was able to purchase the guns with the help of a straw buyer, someone who could clear background checks and obtain the weapon for the suspect.

The paper reports that a straw buyer can face a fine of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison for misrepresenting his or herself as the true purchaser of the weapon. Additionally, a licensed gun dealer who knows a straw purchaser lied on the federal form can also face prosecution.

"If someone bought guns for [Cross], there's no question [that he would face prosecution]. It's open and shut," Kevin Jamison, a Gladstone defense attorney and member of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance, told the Star. "The only question is whether [a straw buyer] had reason to believe [Cross] has a criminal record."

However, gun control advocates told the Star that it is difficult to prove a buyer's intent to purchase a gun for a felon. "You don't want to make a prosecutor prove someone's state of mind," said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "That's almost impossible."

"It's extremely hard to prove [the straw buyer] lied about their intent when they bought the gun," said Kristen Rand, a lobbyist for the Violence Policy Center, which seeks stricter regulation on firearm sales.

According to the Star, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded in a late-1990s study that half of illegal gun trafficking featured straw buys.

The paper reports that Cross lost his Second Amendment rights in 1987 after he was found guilty on a felony possession of a hand grenade conviction, according to the suspect's autobiography.

The capital murder charge against Cross carries the death penalty as possible punishment, Howe said, while the first-degree murder charge carries a life sentence with no chance for parole for at least 25 years. Cross is being held on $10 million bond, and was arraigned last Tuesday.

Cross, a Vietnam War veteran from southwest Missouri, founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party.