Colorado dealer who continued to sell guns after feds pulled license headed to prison

An Aurora man who blamed some his illegal firearms sales on employee's mistakes and pressure from his wife was sentenced to two and half years in federal prison last week.

Timothy Taconi, 70, the owner of A-TAC Gear Guns Uniforms, LLC, was ordered Wednesday to serve 30 months behind bars. After separate investigations by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Denver Division, Taconi was accused of illegally selling firearms (including ghost guns and unregistered parts) outside of Colorado and without a license, often without background checks. 

The ATF discovered three of Taconi's guns were sold to convicted felons.

Taconi's business was registered in Colorado in 2015, the same year he was granted a license to sell firearms by the ATF, according to court documents and online public records. Taconi operated A-TAC out of his home. 

In 2018, the ATF agents learned Taconi was selling weapons at a Wisconsin gun show. Agents there referred him to regulations which stated federal firearms licensees may only sell firearms at gun shows within the state in which their licensed premises is located. 

Taconi acknowledged the violation and signed a warning letter with his signature. The letter was titled "Warning Notice of Gun Show Operations in Violation of Federal Law."

Four months later, ATF agents inspected Taconi's records at his business and found he had ignored the warning. "A-TAC had sold fifty-six firearms to fifty-four different out-of-state residents through twenty-seven out-of-state gun shows," the inspection revealed. "Forty of the sales occurred after Mr. Taconi received his warning letter."

Additionally, the home inspection found Taconi failed to conduct background checks during 110 sales. Three of those sales were made to convicted felons who are not permitted to own firearms, the ATF determined. Two of the sales to the felons happened after the Wisconsin warning. 

The ATF revoked Taconi's license to sell firearms in 2019. A federal judge reviewed the case two years later and supported the revocation. The judge also supported a $24,486 fine for the three background check violations involving the sales to felons.

Taconi spoke at the hearing and blamed the lack of background checks on "miscommunications" by his staff, the judge wrote in a summary. It was not Taconi's only attempt to deflect responsibility elsewhere.

"He provided various reasons and excuses for his company's violations," U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote. "He claimed that he was not sure (the ATF agent) was a 'real' ATF agent when she approached him at the gun show in Racine, Wisconsin. ...he explained that his wife pressured him to conduct sales this way, and that his wife did not agree with the importance of certain firearms sales requirements.

"With respect to his failure to perform background checks...Mr. Taconi testified, 'I don't understand why you do that' and stated that it was 'an added expense.'"

Evidence showed Taconi then ignored the loss of his firearms license just as he had ignored the warning letter.

Witnesses, including licensed gun dealers, reported Taconi selling guns and gun parts at gun shows for two and half years. At those shows in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, Taconi sometimes asked other dealers to conduct background checks for him.

As well, some of the weapons for sale were unmarked and thus unregistered.

ATF then conducted four undercover purchases of guns and silencers from Taconi's residence in late 2022 and January 2023. A search warrant was then obtained and executed in February 2023. Agents seized 33 guns, 217 silencers, ammunition and various gun parts from the home business.

"Despite multiple warnings, Taconi intentionally and repeatedly chose to illegally sell firearms and manufacture ghost guns - what we call Privately Made Firearms - nationwide, particularly along the US-Mexican border," said ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Ashbridge in a press release announcing Taconi's sentencing. "His actions significantly increased the risk of violent gun crime, putting our families and communities in great danger."  

 As part of his sentence, Taconi was also ordered to repay $185,900 he obtained in emergency business relief funds he obtained from the federal government during the pandemic - and while his business's license was inactive. In one loan application (an EIDL), Taconi fraudulently listed A-TAC's revenue in 2020 at $33 million and its expenses at $11 million.