Gun shop owner discusses gun-range suicides

By Andre Senior

CREATED Oct. 15, 2012 - UPDATED: Oct. 15, 2012

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  • The Ft. Myers Police have released more details about the death at a gun range on Sunday. Video by fox4now.com

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FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Ft. Myers Police have released more details about the death at a gun range on Sunday.

 
According to investigators, a man walked into Fowler Firearms sometime around noon, rented a gun and then took his life.
 
There have been several similar types of suicides across the state, several of them in the Orlando area and the most recent happened in Tamarac, a city west of Ft. Lauderdale in Broward Co. 
 
"It's terrible, it's terrible for the industry. It's terrible for the individuals who have to deal with the quilt," said Ed d'Alessandro, owner of the Castle Keep Armory, a gun and firearms training store on Marco Island.
 
The former gun range owner explains that the law restricts owners when doing business with gun renters.
 
"There's not a whole lot you can do about. Just like if someone decide to go to a doctor and fraudulently get medication and committed suicide."
 
The problem is that even through everyone who buys a gun must submit to a background check and waiting period; those who rent a gun do not.
 
In the Orlando area, there were several suicides to take place at one Shoot Straight Gun Range location.
 
An attorney for the company lobbied federal lawmakers to change the law to allow gun shops to do background checks on those renting guns, but was not successful.
 
"They would have to change the implementation law so that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement could do background checks on other than purchasers of firearms, " said Orlando-area attorney Joerg Jaeger.