Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit against Fleet Farm for selling guns to straw buyers despite multiple warning signs to proceed to trial after defeating motion for summary judgment

Attorney General’s Office defeats motion for summary judgment in lawsuit against retailer for selling guns to straw purchasers despite multiple warning signs; Court notes that Fleet Farm employee’s concerns about straw purchases went unheeded

Fleet Farm used its own gun sales to straw purchasers as example of “pretty obvious” example of what should “raise a flag”

Court finds Minnesota “presented evidence that Fleet Farm’s sales to Horton and Elwood enabled straw purchasing, contributed to gun trafficking and violence, and worsened risks to public safety”

October 3, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — The State of Minnesota’s lawsuit against Fleet Farm for negligently selling firearms to straw purchasers will proceed to trial after Attorney General Ellison’s Office prevailed in court over Fleet Farm’s attempt to obtain summary judgment and dismiss the lawsuit, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today.

“It is essential that we hold individuals who commit gun violence accountable, and if businesses break the law and contribute to that violence, they must be held accountable as well,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Fleet Farm ignored numerous red flags and sold guns to straw purchasers who then sold those deadly weapons on the black market. Today’s ruling means Minnesota will have the opportunity to prove in court that Fleet Farm violated the law and jeopardized the safety of Minnesotans. I look forward to putting this case in front of a jury of 12 Minnesotans, and I will continue to use all the tools at my disposal to improve public safety in Minnesota.”

United States District Judge John Tunheim rejected Fleet Farm’s arguments that the State’s civil enforcement action lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to trial. The Court’s order recognized that licensed firearms dealers “are the first line of defense” against straw purchasing. The Court also recognized there is established federal guidance on “red flags” that may indicate a straw purchase, including the following: “multiple purchases in a short period of time, especially if the guns are similar; large cash purchases of firearms; shopping for guns with another person; communication while shopping for firearms, including use of a cell phone; a new frequent gun buyer; and purchasing firearms from different [dealers] to avoid ATF  . . . . reporting requirements.”

The Court then detailed the circumstances of Fleet Farm’s sales to two straw purchasers, Jerome Horton and Sarah Elwood, and how one of the guns Fleet Farm sold to Jerome Horton was used in a mass shooting at the Truck Park Bar in St. Paul that left one person dead and 14 injured. The Court even described the concerns raised about these sales internally by a Fleet Farm sales manager: “In fact, on July 31, 2021, Cory Klebs, a Fleet Farm manager for the Blaine store, reported his concern that Horton was a straw purchaser to Michelle Granato, one of Fleet Farm’s firearms compliance employees.” The Court noted, however, that Klebs “apparently never heard back” about his concerns. The Court further highlighted that Fleet Farm’s two firearms compliance employees provided a company training on “suspicious sales activity” using Fleet Farm’s very sales of guns to straw buyer Jerome Horton in July 2021 as a “pretty obvious” example of what “should raise a flag” and cause “the employee’s radar [to] be up.”

Ultimately, the Court ruled that the State’s claims against Fleet Farm for negligence, negligence per se, and public nuisance, and some of its claims that Fleet Farm violated the Minnesota Gun Control Act will proceed to a jury trial.

The Court also rejected Fleet Farm’s argument that “the State is merely stepping into the shoes” of the individuals harmed in the Truck Park shooting without having “a distinct sovereign interest.” The Court explained that the State’s action directly concerns public safety for Minnesotans at large: “The State challenges 37 separate [firearm sales] over many months, and the majority of the firearms sold in those transactions remain at large. Those unrecovered firearms pose an ongoing public safety threat to Minnesotans as a whole. That threat is neither speculative nor theoretical. Rather, it is supported by longstanding ATF guidance, expert testimony, and common sense.”

Finally, the Court rejected Fleet Farm’s arguments that Fleet Farm was not a “proximate cause” of harm resulting from Fleet Farm’s sales of guns to straw buyers. “The State has presented evidence that Fleet Farm’s sales to Horton and Elwood enabled straw purchasing, contributed to gun trafficking and violence, and worsened risks to public safety,” the Court wrote. Moreover, such harm was foreseeable to Fleet Farm: “The record shows that Horton displayed textbook indicators of straw purchasing—so much so that Fleet Farm later used his transactions as training examples. Klebs raised straw purchasing suspicions internally, yet those concerns were disregarded.”

The trial date will be set by the Court in the near future.

Attorney General Ellison continues to hold corporations accountable for harming public safety

Individuals who commit criminal acts should be held accountable for those acts in the criminal-justice system. The Attorney General is an active partner in criminal prosecution in Minnesota: the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office assists county attorneys across Minnesota upon their request in prosecuting individuals who have committed serious violent crimes, and has a long track record of winning convictions.

At the same time, when corporations create conditions that contribute to harming public safety, then refuse to rectify those conditions when they become aware of them, they should also be held accountable. Holding corporations civilly accountable is not a substitute for criminally prosecuting individuals who harm others; rather, it complements criminal prosecution by holding corporate actors farther upstream accountable for their role in creating conditions that harm the safety of the public and facilitate individual criminal acts.

Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit against Fleet Farm is an example of his pioneering use of civil law to complement criminal prosecution in holding actors accountable for harming public safety. Other examples include: