David Joseph Mull, a 52-year-old man from North Vernon, Indiana, has been sentenced to a term of four years in federal prison for his involvement in reselling over 1,300 firearms without a license. This sentence will be followed by two years of supervised release, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Mull had previously been issued a cease-and-desist letter by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2016 but chose to blatantly ignore the warning.
The ATF had put Mull on notice that to legally continue his business, he needed to obtain a federal firearms license. Nevertheless, Mull opted to persistently sell firearms at gun shows, evading federal law enforcement's detection by purchasing from other private sellers, whom needed not to comply with the same rigorous reporting requirements as licensed dealers. Documents from the court reveal that Mull was well aware that the guns he sold were destined to cross state lines and end up in Mexico.
Over the span of four years, between 2019 and 2023, Mull's operations were quite extensive, channeling over 500 firearms—including semiautomatic handguns and rifles in the style of ARs and AKs—to a principal customer involved in illegal arms trafficking. These transactions totaled approximately $350,000 in cash. "Mull knew or had reason to believe that the firearms would be transported from Indianapolis to New York City, and then to Mexico, at the time of sale," as detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In addition to his direct sales, Mull also managed to successfully run an online firearms business where around 800 firearms were sold to buyers throughout the United States, amassing $174,142 in proceeds. Despite the large-scale nature of Mull's enterprise, the federal authorities have now successfully curtailed his operations, reflecting the ongoing efforts to combat illegal firearms distribution and its far-reaching impacts on communities domestically and across the border.
