More than 200 shotguns were found in a dumpster near an Oklahoma store and now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating.
ATF agent David Moore said in a search warrant that the guns were found by a sanitation worker in Midwest City, Oklahoma, last month, near International Firearm Corporation, The Associated Press reported.
The business is owned by Raymond Anthony “Tony” Mussatto.
The ATF said they recovered 236 imported Radikal Arms .20 gauge shotguns, the AP reported. The gunmaker is based in Turkey.
The warrant said an employee told agents that the shotguns were defective and needed to be destroyed, however, agents said they were functional, the AP reported.
Officials said Mussatto had spoken with an ATF official last fall on how to properly dispose of guns he had imported into the U.S. The ATF said he was told to slice through the weapons in three places.
The cutting would render the guns inoperable and unable to be reassembled, KOKH reported.
The shop owner allegedly told the ATF that it would be too expensive to cut them and asked for other options, KWTV reported.
But the guns that had been thrown in the dumpster had only been partially cut once.
One man who had seen the guns in the dumpster before ATF arrived said he was given two functioning weapons without undergoing a background check.
“The man said that he approached the employee and began discussing the firearms and expressed interest in owning one of the firearms. The employee told the man the firearms are defective and should not be shot. The man told the employee that he did not intend to shoot the guns, but rather wanted to hang the firearms on his wall. The male employee permitted the man to take two uncut firearms and gave him two magazines, one for each firearm,” an affidavit said, according to KOKH.
The man surrendered the guns to the ATF, but was found to be allowed to own firearms, officials said.