Why is TGSCOM, the company that sold guns to the Virginia Tech shooter, in the news again?”
An online weapons dealer who sold a gun or accessories to three mass killers, including a man who opened fire at a Pittsburgh-area health club this week, said Friday that any of the shooters could have just as easily found what they wanted at a Wal-Mart or another store. Eric Thompson, whose company TGSCOM Inc. last year sold an empty Glock 9 mm magazine and magazine loading apparatus to George Sodini, the man who shot up a Collier Township, Pa., health club on Tuesday, said the sale was legal and his company did nothing wrong. “The firearms industry and firearms dealers are lambasted by the media and by politicians all the time and very often nobody stands up and says ‘hey, we didn’t do anything wrong,'” Thompson said. “I’m … being penalized by doing a good job and employing a lot of people and selling sporting goods … I’m not some backwoods guy just making to look a buck off of tragedy.” Thompson’s company, which is based in Green Bay and employs about 40 people, also sold a gun
Eric Thompson, president of TGSCOM Inc., said he was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life at the hands of a disturbed and socially stunted man.” The purchases by the health-club gunman, 48-year-old George Sodini, marks the third time the company has been linked to mass shootings since 2007. The company also sold guns and firearm accessories to the shooters of massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Northern Illinois University in 2008. Sodini fatally shot himself after killing three women and wounding nine others attending a weekly aerobics class in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. It is unclear whether he used any of the accessories purchased from a TGSCOM Inc. Web site. TGSCOM Inc. an online company that sells guns and sporting goods through more than a 100 Web sites. It is based in Green Bay and employees 37 people. Thompson said the company sold Sodini a Glock Magloader and a Glock Factory Magazine for $46 in April 2008. WXPI, Channel 11, in Pittsburgh first reported that a recei
An online weapons dealer who sold a gun or accessories to three mass killers, including a man who opened fire at a Pittsburgh-area health club this week, said Friday that any of the shooters could have just as easily found what they wanted at a Wal-Mart or another store. Eric Thompson, whose company TGSCOM Inc. last year sold an empty Glock 9 mm magazine and magazine loading apparatus to George Sodini, the man who shot up a Collier Township, Pa., health club on Tuesday, said the sale was legal and his company did nothing wrong. “The firearms industry and firearms dealers are lambasted by the media and by politicians all the time and very often nobody stands up and says ‘hey, we didn’t do anything wrong,'” Thompson said. “I’m … being penalized by doing a good job and employing a lot of people and selling sporting goods …
