This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: UC San Francisco's Industry Documents Library, in partnership with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, has made public nearly 700 internal documents from a Midwest retailer as part of the state's lawsuit alleging the company ignored an internal warning before selling firearms to a straw buyer. The Aug. 19 release marks the launch of the library's new firearm industry collection and is the first state-led agreement to include the public release of internal firearms industry documents, making these 694 records publicly accessible for the first time.
The documents were obtained during Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's 2022 lawsuit, which alleged that Fleet Farm, a 50-store chain that sells firearms, hunting equipment, and other goods in five Midwest states, negligently sold firearms to straw buyers—people who purchase firearms on behalf of another person—and contributed to gun trafficking in Minnesota. Fleet Farm sold at least 37 firearms to two straw purchasers over 16 months, often selling multiple, nearly identical guns in a single transaction or within a short period. One of those guns was later fired in an October 2021 shootout at the Truck Park bar in St.
Paul that killed one person and injured 14 bystanders. Under the February 2026 settlement, the company agreed to significant policy changes to help prevent straw purchases, pay a $1 million penalty, and publicly release the records. "To those who were skeptical of this lawsuit when I filed it, and skeptical that we could use civil law to hold corporations accountable for their roles in public safety crises, I trust these documents will put that skepticism to rest," Ellison said.
"My team and I are creating a whole new body of work in successfully using civil law to improve public safety and protect the well-being of Minnesotans everywhere, and we're going to keep building on it." Founded in 2002, the UCSF Industry Documents Library collects, preserves and provides free public access to internal documents from industries that affect public health. Its collections include records from the tobacco, opioid, chemical, pharmaceutical, fossil fuel and food industries. With the addition of the Fleet Farm records, the library is launching the Firearms Industry Documents Archive as a new resource for researchers, policymakers, journalists and the public to better understand corporate practices and inform future research, legal action and public policy.
Support for UCSF's Firearms Industry Documents Archive comes from the Firearms Accountability Initiative, a collaborative, nonpartisan effort to hold the firearms industry accountable for its role in American gun violence. "As with the tobacco industry collections, the Firearms Industry Documents Archive will shine a light on corporate practices that cause harm and help inform solutions to protect public health and safety," said Kate Tasker, director of the UCSF Industry Documents Library. More than 1,200 publications have been written based on industry documents, which have paved the way for major tobacco control legislation, including a U.S. law giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco and a global health treaty under the World Health Organization that prevents the industry from influencing tobacco control laws in many countries around the world.
"They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I hope we are able to shine some sunlight on the firearms industry with this release of documents," Ellison added. "I'm extremely grateful to the University of California, San Francisco's Industry Documents Library for their partnership, and I hope lawmakers, journalists and researchers will use these documents to improve the public health and safety of the American people." Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. d research that matter—daily or weekly. The documents show that Fleet Farm ignored an internal warning about suspicious firearm purchases by Jerome Horton, one of the two straw buyers identified in the lawsuit.
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