Killer’s gun buy easily beat scrutiny
Reports: Uvalde store manager saw no red flags as Ramos got assault-style rifle
week before he went on a rampage at Robb Elementary School, Salvador Ramos picked up a Smith & Wesson assaultstyle rifle at the Oasis Outback gun store in Uvalde, federal law enforcement reports show.
The store charged Ramos, 18, more than $1,000 for the gun, taxes and a transfer fee, after he passed a background check. He paid with a Mastercard.
A day later, on May 18, he returned to the store for three boxes of 5.56 mm ammunition, a toa tal of 375 bullets. Ramos paid $276 with a bundle of cash and the same Mastercard, with few, if any, questions asked.
When Ramos went back a third time, on May 20, to pick up a Daniel Defense assault-style rifle — which he’d ordered online and would use in the mass shooting four days later — the Oasis manager asked him how an 18-year-old could afford such an expensive firearm. Ramos said he’d saved up for it.
The rifle retails for more than $1,800. The store also charged him a $30 transfer fee.
Ramos waited in the store while that May 20 gun transfer and background check were processed, video of the sale shows. Clad fully in black, with hair down to his shoulders, he stood out from the other customers. He paced back and forth, fumbled through his wallet and fidgeted with a box that contained a scope, raising it to his eye.
Once he’d completed the sale, Ramos walked out with the rifle in its case, after a store employee helped him put it together.
The purchase took less than 30 minutes.
Oasis’ manager later told federal agents that Ramos seemed like an average customer, rais
ing no red flags during the transaction May 20, according to investigation reports by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives obtained by the Express-news. The newspaper also obtained video of the May 20 sale.
The manager’s assertion clashes with claims in lawsuits that relatives of the shooting victims have filed against the store, Georgia-based gun-maker Daniel Defense and others. At least two of the lawsuits allege that store employees were suspicious of Ramos but still handed him the Daniel Defense rifle.
The ATF reports show that Ramos easily escaped scrutiny — even as Uvalde law enforcement officers investigated a gun theft that occurred at the store less than an hour before Ramos bought the ammo there May 18.
On May 24, Ramos massacred 19 students and two teachers shortly after entering Robb Elementary at 11:30 a.m. He had both rifles when he drove to the school in a pickup he’d taken from his grandmother, whom he’d just shot in the face. But he left behind the Smith & Wesson rifle after crashing the truck in a ditch near the school and setting off on foot.
He carried the Daniel Defense rifle as he jumped a fence and entered the unlocked school.
One of the ATF reports said that one of the bureau’s agents got a call from Outback manager James Robert “Bob” Porter within minutes of arriving in Uvalde on May 24 to begin investigating the school shooting.
Shortly before 3 p.m. that day, Porter told agents he recognized Ramos from a photo of the gunman that an “unknown individual” at the Uvalde County district attorney’s office had texted to him.
“Porter stated he immediately remembered transferring a rifle to Ramos on May 20, 2022,” one ATF report said. “Porter stated Ramos seemed like an average customer with no ‘red flags’ or suspicious conditions during the firearm transfer. Porter stated Ramos was always alone and quiet.”
Reached by phone, Porter declined to comment.
Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee said via email that no one from her office contacted a manager at Oasis with a picture of Ramos.
“If the individual was ‘unknown,’ I don’t know how (the manager) knew it was my office,” Mitchell said, adding that her office did not know who the gunman was until later that night or the next day.
Through the cracks
Besides establishing national background checks of gun buyers, federal law requires licensed firearms dealers to keep records of their transactions. But no laws or rules require dealers to report suspicious gun sales to law enforcement, according to Davy Aguilera, who once led ATF’S San Antonio office.
“The ones we had a good relationship with would call ATF and let (agents) know about any suspicious purchases, but that’s not all the time,” Aguilera said. “However, that being said, when somebody who is a multi purchaser buys multiple guns, ATF gets notified through a multiple-purchase sale ticket.”
According to the ATF’S National Tracing Center website, licensed gun dealers are required by federal law to alert ATF whenever a customer buys two or more guns within five consecutive business days. When a dealer files such a report, the center directs the regional ATF office to investigate. Generally, the reports from dealers help agents determine whether firearms trafficking or other crimes are being committed.
Ramos’ two gun purchases occurred within three days of each other.
However, it was unclear whether Oasis reported Ramos’ gun purchases to ATF.
An ATF spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the Tiahrt Amendment, a controversial provision of the 2003 Justice Department appropriations bill that bars the agency from releasing information from its firearms-tracing database to anyone other than law enforcement or prosecutors in connection with criminal investigations.
Few rules on bullet sales
There are few laws restricting ammunition sales, Aguilera noted.
In most states, it’s not illegal for just about any adult to buy or sell large quantities of civilian-use ammunition. Bullets are a commodity almost as unregulated as milk or bread, with no record-keeping requirement, limit on volume per individual or disqualifying criminal history for buyers — unlike some rules governing gun sales.
In most states, ammunition can be bought online or in person with no oversight.
About six states have adopted point-of-sale checks, while Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey require licenses or permits to purchase or possess bullets.
One of the ATF reports said that around 5 p.m. May 24, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper asked at a law enforcement staging center in Uvalde if ATF knew that Ramos had bought ammo at Oasis. An ATF agent said the agency knew about Ramos’ gun purchases only.
The trooper told the agent that someone — he didn’t know who — told the Uvalde County Sheriff ’s Office that Ramos had bought “three bricks” of ammunition at Oasis 30 minutes after someone stole a gun from the store.
ATF agents had already interviewed Porter, but they returned to Oasis and talked with him again.
During the interview, Porter said another man stole a handgun from the firearm sales counter about noon May 18. The report said Uvalde police recovered the stolen handgun and arrested a suspect that same day.
After agents asked Porter to look at store records to see whether Ramos bought ammo there, Porter found that Ramos had purchased three boxes of Winchester 5.56 mm ammunition at 12:56 p.m. May 18.
Aguilera said the types of guns and the amount of ammo Ramos bought, his age and that he picked them up at the same store within three days should have raised alarms at Oasis.
“If they would have had a good relationship with law enforcement, they could have made a phone call to them,” Aguilera said. “But they don’t have to.”