Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Charles County, Missouri, who illegally sold hundreds of guns was sentenced Monday to five years of probation and 200 hours of community service. 

Harry Trueblood, 69, is also now a convicted felon and is barred from possessing, let alone selling, firearms.

Trueblood pleaded guilty in November to one count of being an unlicensed firearms dealer. He admitted selling firearms at not less than 15 gun shows from January 2021 through May 2023 despite never having been licensed to deal in firearms. He continued selling even after agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) warned him that he was committing a crime. Trueblood purposely avoided obtaining a Federal Firearms License (FFL), Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski said in court Monday.

“ATF is a leader in the nation’s fight to disrupt violent crime for safer communities,” said Bernard Hansen, Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Kansas City Field Division. “Trueblood was linked to selling over 250 firearms without a Federal Firearms License and over 40 crime guns were traced back him. It is firearm traffickers like this defendant that fuel violence in our communities by putting deadly weapons in the hands of people who commit violent crimes in our communities. Our Crime Gun Intelligence Center was at the center of this investigation, utilizing intelligence to identify this defendant and disrupting the supply of illegally transferred firearms and making our neighborhoods safer.”

Guns sold illegally by Trueblood were recovered at the scene of a homicide, a suicide and other shootings and from felons and a juvenile, Szczucinski said. One person with mental health issues severe enough that he was turned away from two gun stores found Trueblood and bought a firearm from him, Szczucinski said in court.

The ATF began investigating Trueblood after multiple guns recovered in unrelated crimes were traced back to him as the original purchaser. Trueblood sold AR-15-type pistols and handguns to undercover ATF agents before the ATF on Feb. 1, 2023, sent him a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to stop dealing in firearms without a license. Trueblood continued to sell guns, his plea agreement says.

The ATF investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski is prosecuting the case.

Contact
Robert Patrick, Public Affairs Officer, robert.patrick@usdoj.gov.

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