Rejected: Gun Store Cancels AR-15 Purchase by Gabby Giffords' Husband

An Arizona gun store cancelled a purchase made by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords's husband Mark Kelly. On March 5th, Kelly visited Diamondback Police Supply in Tucson, selected an AR-15 style rifle, a .45 caliber handgun, and some high capacity magazines, completed a background check and paid for his purchases.

Within days, the story broke nationally and Kelly claimed that his purchases were made to highlight how easy it is to get a gun. He also added that he intended to turn the AR-15 into the Tucson Police. The story sparked almost 4,000 comments to Mark Kelly's public Facebook page, many of them not very supportive of his intentions.

Image: Facebook screen capture

The former astronaut told CNN that he intended to keep the handgun.

Image: Facebook

The store, Diamondback Police Supply in Tucson has now rejected Kelly's March 5th purchase, and has sent him a full refund. The decision was announced on the company's Facebook page, in a post from the Diamondback's owner/president Douglas MacKinley:

“While I support and respect Mark Kelly’s 2nd Amendment rights to purchase, possess, and use firearms in a safe and responsible manner, his recent statements to the media made it clear that his intent in purchasing the Sig Sauer M400 5.56mm rifle from us was for reasons other then for his personal use. In light of this fact, I determined that it was in my company’s best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store to complete the Federal From 4473 and NICS background check required of Mr. Kelly before he could take possession this firearm. A full refund was sent to Mr. Kelly, via express mail, on Thursday of last week."

If you were wondering why it took so long for the transaction to be completed, the delay was due to a local regulation that requires a 20-day waiting period for private gun purchases. The rifle Kelly selected was a used weapon and that kind of transaction is treated as a private sale and the 20-day wait applied. Mark Kelly had not returned to pick up the gun.

Diamondback Police Supply has also announced that the rifle Kelly selected will be donated to the Arizona Tactical Officers Association (ATO), to be raffled off to raise funds for the group. ATO raises money to purchase much-needed equipment for SWAT teams. MacKinley also said that his company will make a $1295 (the price of the rifle) donation to the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

Mark Kelly's representatives have not responded to requests for comments on the rejected purchase of the AR-15 style rifle.