Semiautomatics used at school initially 'purchased legally'

By Carla Crowder
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Federal agents have tracked the two semiautomatic guns used in the Columbine High School massacre -- a TEC-9 pistol and a carbine -- to legal, licensed gun dealers.

But authorities are not saying how the 9mm weapons got into the hands of teens. Or where the dealers are located.

Initially, "they were purchased legally ... from federally licensed firearms dealers," said Jeff Roehm, chief of public information for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Columbine students Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, used the semiautomatics -- along with a pump-action shotgun and a double-barrell shotgun -- to kill 12 students, a teacher and themselves in the nation's deadliest shooting at a school.

The TEC-9, also known as a TEC DC-9, was notorious even before Tuesday's violence.

The pistol has been used in other mass killings in the United States.

It's cheap, has a "fingerprint-proof finish" and sprays bullets with wild inaccuracy, according to gun experts.

"It's a semiautomatic version of a Swedish submachine gun," said Bob Glass, owner of Paladin Arms in Longmont. He sells three or four TEC-9s a year at $250 each.

"People serious about protecting themselves would never buy it because it's not a very good quality gun," Glass said.

TEC-9s are easily fitted with a device called a "hell fire trigger." A shooter can empty a 32-round magazine in seconds, pop it out and reload quickly with this device, according to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, part of Handgun Control Inc., the nation's largest anti-gun lobby.

The center sued TEC-9 manufacturer Intratec of Miami after a man used two of the military-style pistols to kill eight people and injure six at at a law office in San Francisco in 1993.

In the 1994 lawsuit, which was dismissed, the center claimed Intratec's marketing techniques and supplying patterns were inherently deadly. Intratec owner Carlos Garcia could not be reached for comment Friday.

"This is a manufacturer who advertises guns with a fingerprint-proof finish," said Nancy Hwa, communications director for Handgun Control.

"They're producing a high-powered weapon which has no sporting value, which effectively is designed to kill as many people as possible in as short amount of time as possible," Hwa said.

The TEC-9 also comes with a sling for carrying the gun over the shoulder. A perforated metal shroud that protrudes around the barrel helps insulate the shooter's hands from the high heat generated during extended use.

"Its full metal jacketed bullets will exit a human being and keep on moving, even through a wall and will strike innocent bystanders," Hwa said, reading from the center's lawsuit.

The judge who dismissed the suit said Intratec didn't legally owe the victims anything.

"The gun itself is a perfectly legal firearm," Glass of Paladin Arms said.

Harris and Klebold were too young to legally buy pistols. Colorado law says you must be 21.

Harris turned 18 less than two weeks before the killings, so he could have legally bought the carbine, a short-barreled rifle.

"It was so simple to get them. Guns are everywhere. You can buy them on the street. You can get them anywhere you want. You can steal them. They're readily available," Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas said.

The 1994 Brady Bill banned 19 kinds of assault rifles, including the TEC-9. As the assault-rifle ban was gaining momentum through Congress, Intratec tripled production of TEC-9s, producing 102,682 of them that year.

"Once the gun makers saw the writing on the wall and saw it was gong to be signed, what did they do? They increased their production so they could get as many on the streets," Hwa said.

All existing guns were grandfathered into the legislation.

Few metro-area gun dealers sell TEC-9s, said Dave Anver, of Dave's Guns, a gun store on Parker Road.

"I don't know anyone who sells quality guns who sells those guns," Anver said. "It's pretty much known as low-rent weaponry."

The shotguns are older and not as easy to trace. ATF still had not traced their origins Friday.

To trace a weapon, agents use its serial number. First they contact the manufacturer. They find out which wholesaler or distributor the manufacturer sold to, then which dealer the distributor sold to, the ATF's Roehm said.

Once they have the dealer's name, "At that point you start your gumshoe work and say, 'Excuse me, sir, what did you do with the gun?"'