After Chicago police officer John Bartholomew was killed on April 25 with a Glock 29 allegedly traced to an illegal purchase at a Range USA store in Merrillville, investigators pointed to repeated ATF findings of missing background checks, falsified paperwork,
On April 25, Chicago police officer John Bartholomew was fatally shot with a 10-millimeter Glock 29—one that, investigators say, had changed hands through an illegal transaction at a Range USA store in Indiana.
Bartholomew was killed with a gun that was not the original owner’s weapon. According to investigators, it was first purchased in 2024 in Merrillville, Indiana, in an illegal transaction at a Range USA store a short drive from Chicago.
The timing landed with particular force because Range USA’s Merrillville location had already been flagged years earlier for compliance breakdowns—problems tied to the basic safeguards meant to stop guns from reaching people who can’t legally buy them. Records obtained by ProPublica show the store faced serious compliance failures cited by the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearms and Explosives. the federal agency tasked with oversight of gun retailers.
After a 2022 inspection. the Merrillville store faced revocation of its license because a background check was missing for one sale. according to ATF inspection records. Inspectors also determined that the company made “no significant improvement” toward correcting more than a half dozen previous violations. ATF records show.
In its response to those findings. Range USA managers pointed to what they described as the store’s antiquated system for filing federal sales paperwork. They told inspectors the underlying problems would be cured once the company moved to an electronic system. The ATF later rescinded the recommendation on the Merrillville store after proof was found that the background check had been conducted.
But the record of warning signs didn’t end with Merrillville. Federal authorities recommended revoking the licenses of three other Range USA locations between 2020 and 2024, including two stores in Ohio.
In 2021. during an ATF inspection of the Range USA in Dayton. an employee sold a firearm to a person who failed a background check. records show. Company representatives admitted the employee had not followed store policy and “missed the appropriate connections” concerning illegal sales, despite training. They told the agency they would implement new policies to head off further lapses.
A year later, in Lewis Center, an ATF inspector found a sales clerk had falsified records of a gun sale after accepting an expired conceal-and-carry permit in lieu of conducting a background check, records show. Range USA managers disputed that its employees lied intentionally.
For locations that faced revocations, the status now is that they remain open, according to the company’s website, though some have paid fines.
The push-and-pull between enforcement and continued operations has not been limited to Indiana. The ATF has issued dozens of violations against Range USA, including a store in Naperville, Illinois. Range USA told the ATF it was putting a new policy in place to prevent illegal sales. ATF originally sought revocation of the store’s license. The company paid a fine, and the store remains open, records obtained and highlighted by ProPublica show.
In Chicago. where gun sales are banned. Bartholomew is not the first officer killed with a weapon tied to a straw sale executed in Indiana. Nearly five years ago, Ella French was shot to death by Emonte Morgan during a traffic stop. The gun used in that killing was purchased by another man. Jamel Danzy. from Deb’s Gun Range in Hammond. Indiana. in March 2021.
Danzy lied by claiming on a required form that he was purchasing the gun for himself. when investigators say he intended to pass it along to Morgan. Danzy was ordered to serve two and a half years in prison for making false statements on federal forms. Morgan was sentenced to life without parole following his 2024 conviction for French’s killing.
And in the weeks leading up to Bartholomew’s death, Chicago confronted another loss of a public safety officer. Bartholomew was inside a hospital when he was shot and killed while guarding Alphanso Talley. a suspect in an armed robbery who allegedly drew a concealed gun and opened fire. Talley has been charged with murder and has yet to enter a plea.
Investigators allege the gun Talley used was purchased two years prior at the Merrillville Range USA by Olivia Burgos. who now faces criminal charges for making false statements to facilitate the sale. Federal investigators say Burgos told store employees she was purchasing the gun for herself. but that she bought it on behalf of her boyfriend. a felon who was prevented from legally purchasing one.
Prosecutors allege Burgos also lied by indicating on federal purchase documents that she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the sale. Investigators say Burgos told them she was addicted to fentanyl and was on the drug when she signed the papers for the gun. Federal authorities have charged her with making a false statement while purchasing a firearm.
The gun eventually made its way to Talley, and an investigation into its path to Chicago is ongoing.
The chain’s operational posture has been matched by a political push from its founder and president. Tom Willingham. who has become an advocate for the gun industry. In the last five years. he has contributed to a political action committee that sought to elect candidates friendly to the interests of gun retailers like Range USA.
Both Range USA and Willingham have personally given to a committee run by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association that lobbies for the gun retail industry. Range USA has given $35,000, and Willingham has given $5,000.
Range USA was launched in 2012 as a new kind of gun retailer. Its founder and president. Tom Willingham. wanted the experience of buying and shooting firearms to feel more mainstream. modeled on big box chains rather than smaller. unwelcoming shops. Today, Range USA has 50 stores in 14 states, spanning from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast.
The company has kept growing even as federal regulators repeatedly cited employees for failing basic protocols designed to help thwart illegal sales and as guns bought at its stores keep getting recovered by police.
In 2025, Range USA sales—according to industry trade publications—increased by just over 5% even as the industry cooled. With that momentum, Range USA is eyeing another expansion, planning to open three new locations by 2027.
Range USA did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.
Its broader pattern of responding to ATF findings has included blaming employee mistakes and staff turnover while promising improved training, records show.
That kind of argument clashes with how some gun-safety advocates describe what they see. Last year, Brady United alleged negligence by Range USA, several Range employees, and Willingham in a straw sale linked to the company’s store in Shorewood, Illinois, about 50 miles outside Chicago.
The suit grew from a 2023 incident in which then-18-year-old Maxwell Williams shot a woman through the neck during an argument at a large house party. Williams later pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a firearm and is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Illinois state prison.
Brady’s lawsuit alleged Williams. who was not old enough to buy a firearm at the time. had his girlfriend illegally purchase one on his behalf. According to court records. the lawsuit says a Range USA sales clerk proceeded with the sale despite signs that the girlfriend was not the actual buyer. It also cites video of the transaction showing Williams verbally directing her on which gun to buy and counting out the cash for the purchase.
The girlfriend pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in the shooting.
Range USA denied Brady’s allegations and moved to dismiss the lawsuit. asserting that its employees had no knowledge of any criminal intent by Maxwell or his girlfriend. Attorneys for the company cited the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. saying it preempts lawsuits against gun retailers and their employees over harm caused by guns bought at their stores.
For all the legal fights and enforcement strategies, the problem remains persistent: detecting and preventing illegal sales like the straw purchases that preceded the deaths of the two Chicago police officers has eluded lawmakers and industry figures alike.
Employees at retail gun stores are generally taught to notice typical signs of straw purchases and are entitled to end any suspect transaction. But even with good-faith efforts, straw sales persist.
The ATF has established surveillance programs requiring retailers to report potential or suspected straw purchases. One program was tied to “crime guns”—firearms recovered by police within three years of being sold at retail. Stores with more than 25 such guns annually were targeted for enhanced scrutiny through a program known as Demand Letter 2.
Under the Biden administration, that program was used to connect guns purchased on underground markets to the original sellers. Last year, Trump officials announced Demand Letter 2 would be discontinued.
According to an analysis by Brady, about two-thirds of Range USA locations were included in the Demand Letter 2 program between 2022 and 2023.
Gun industry figures consistently deny responsibility for straw sales, placing blame on buyers who break the law by lying about their intentions. Their solution centers on educational programs and training for retailers aimed at spotting signs of straw buyers.
In 2021. under President Joe Biden. the ATF began what is sometimes referred to as a “zero-tolerance policy” — conducting more frequent inspections and applying harsher penalties to retailers who repeatedly failed to comply with federal guidelines governing gun sales. After it was adopted. the industry saw a huge increase in the number of recommendations for gun-store license revocations issued by the ATF.
Those recommendations do not lead to immediate closures because stores can fight revocations through administrative hearings and court appeals that can last years. Revocations plummeted under Trump last year.
Whether Biden-era policies reduced gun trafficking remains a matter of debate. One expert reached by ProPublica said enhanced enforcement didn’t begin in earnest until the middle years of the Biden administration. Before it could take root, the expert said the Trump administration upended the policy.
Last month. Trump officials gathered in Washington. D.C. to mark the agency’s pivot away from Biden-era enforcement measures and usher in a more industry-friendly approach. ATF Director Robert Cekada said the new direction would streamline and modernize gun-sale paperwork to cut down on clerical errors and make consequences for good-faith mistakes more lenient.
“We are proposing to remove unnecessary hurdles that were standing in the way of law-abiding citizens and businesses,” Cekada said. “We are proposing to restore clarity and predictability in our standards.”
Cekada also stressed that public safety remains a top priority. “ATF remains the greatest friend to state and local law enforcement officers, and we believe that these rules will not negatively impact public safety,” he said.
Asked to comment on the end of the zero-tolerance policy. an ATF spokesperson told ProPublica in an emailed statement: “These are administrative and regulatory changes to processes and definitions. not changes to the underlying prohibitions that keep firearms out of dangerous hands. The ATF does not believe any recently released proposed rules will jeopardize public safety.”.
Professor Daniel Webster. a longtime researcher of gun trafficking at Johns Hopkins University. said the ATF’s new direction sends a “dangerous signal” to retailers and the public that surveillance of straw sales is no longer a priority. Webster said the new rules tell retailers. “Do whatever you want.” He added. “My take is that this ATF is more interested in protecting the industry than in the American public.”.
In an emailed statement, NSSF spokesperson Mark Oliva said the organization and its members are “committed to ensuring firearms remain beyond the reach of those who cannot be trusted to possess them. That category includes criminals.”
Against that backdrop. Range USA’s experience reads like a warning sign written in procedure and paperwork. and then rewritten through rescissions. fines. and continued operation. In Merrillville. inspectors found missing background checks and “no significant improvement” after multiple prior violations. and yet the ATF later rescinded the revocation recommendation when proof emerged that a background check had been conducted. In other locations. employees were cited for selling to people who failed background checks and for falsifying records after accepting an expired permit.
Then the guns keep traveling. Bartholomew’s death put one of those journeys in sharp focus: the Glock 29, allegedly tied first to an illegal purchase in Merrillville in 2024, ended in a hospital room in Chicago and triggered an ongoing investigation into how it made its way there.
Range USA has denied allegations in related lawsuits and says it is improving policies and training. Federal regulators say compliance failures can cost licenses. And now. with the ATF moving away from Biden-era enforcement measures—while Range USA continues to expand—the question hanging over the industry is whether the safeguards meant to stop illegal sales are being tightened enough. or whether they are being softened right when the consequences are already showing up in the hardest possible way.
Range USA ATF Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives straw purchase John Bartholomew Glock 29 Merrillville Indiana Illinois gun violence zero-tolerance policy Demand Letter 2 political action committee National Shooting Sports Foundation