The gun shop owner who sold Omar Mateen the two firearms used in a terrorist attack at an Orlando night club Sunday morning is pushing back against claims he broke the law to sell the guns.
Ed Henson, a retired New York Police Department detective who worked at the Twin Towers during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, explained his employees were not to blame for selling weapons to the alleged Islamic State-inspired terrorist.
“An evil person came in here and legally purchased firearms from us. If he hadn’t purchased them from us, he would have got them from a local gun store in the area,” Henson told reporters in a press conference Monday afternoon. “We follow the rules, we don’t make the rules.”
Henson said his employees fulfilled all state and federal mandates when they conducted two separate background checks on Mateen. The now-deceased gunman had gone in to the store three times: June 4, 5 and 9.
He first visited to apply for and purchase a .223 AR-style Sig Sauer MCX semiautomatic rifle. The following day he went back in to reapply for a new weapon, a Glock 17 9 mm handgun, and he had to wait three “cooling days” before he could pick it up.
“He passed all the background checks,” Henson confirmed.
Since state law enforcement did not have Mateen on a “do not sell” list, any store would have sold him the guns and not to have done so would have been a discriminatory issue.
Henson added that Mateen was not a regular customer.
“He’s familiar to me vaguely. I don’t know him personally. He’s been here obviously,” Henson said.
He also answered reporters’ follow-up questions after a U.S. official said Mateen had attempted to purchase body armor from an unknown store. St. Lucie Shooting Center is 15 miles away from the shooter’s residence in Fort Pierce.
“I have no recollection of anybody asking for body armor, number one,” Henson said. “Number two, we’ve never sold body armor and we don’t currently sell body armor. I just hope you do some truthful reporting and get to the facts and stay focused at least until the incident — say your prayers for these victims.”
Henson’s store was closed for the ongoing investigation through Monday morning, but reopened to the public in the afternoon.
“I’m just sorry he picked my place. I wish he picked no place,” Henson said.
