Every gun has a story.
That includes the weapon recovered from a gunfight in 2011 involving IMPD Officer Dwayne "Dewey" Runnels.
"I was in a fight for my life," recalled Runnels as he spoke with 13 Investigates after East District roll call.
Runnels survived a bullet to his hip after Demetrious Martin opened fire in an apartment complex.
"He fired. I fired. I ended up shooting him three times," said Runnels, a 16-year veteran of the department. "Two [bullets] to the chest, and he still had his gun pointed at me. He was still alert and looking right at me."
Federal agents traced the gun used to shoot Runnels back to the man who bought it and handed it over to Martin. Federal prosecutors said Martin was a convicted felon and so could not buy it directly himself.
Runnels is one of three IMPD officers shot by felons over the past three years - felons who couldn't legally buy or possess a gun. Each criminal got one anyway.
Officers David Moore and Rod Bradway weren't as lucky as Runnels. They both died in their shootings.
"They should not have guns in their hands," Runnels said of felons. "It's important to hold accountable people who put guns in the wrong hands."
Now Runnels is taking on a different gun fight - one to hold gun stores accountable. His case is one of 10 nationwide championed by the Washington D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Runnels' case got rolling thanks to that gun trace by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
"What we're interested in is illegal possession of firearms," explained ATF Group Supervisor Patrick Hand.
The ATF is stepping up their work tracking guns, the violent felons pulling the trigger and the people illegally supplying the weapons for them. In 2013, the agency successfully traced nearly 6,000 firearms, many recovered from crime scenes here in Indiana. Most of those were semi-automatic pistols, but dozens were machine guns.
"Every gun that ATF takes into custody, both in Marion County and in the outlying counties, is run through the crime lab," Hand told 13 Investigates.
Inside the Marion County Crime Lab, experts begin linking evidence to crimes and criminals.
Forensic examiners fire rounds from recovered guns into a bullet tank. Those shell casings reveal the gun's DNA. The casings are also entered into the National Integrated Ballistics Identification System. The system is used by the ATF to see if unique markings from that particular gun match casings from other crimes.
"We can't tell the police who pulled the trigger, but we can tell them that they're looking for the same gun that caused the same type of patterning, if you will," said Mike Medler, Director of the Marion County Forensic Services Lab, commonly known as "the crime lab."
Ballistics information is just one part of the trail. The ATF wants to know where the gun came from, and how it ended up in the suspect's hands. Those are questions that can lead investigators across the country.
It should be noted federal law does not allow the ATF to keep a ready list of gun owners.
"There's a misnomer that the ATF maintains a database as far as who owns what firearms, and that is not true. We do not know who owns what or who owns how many. What we know is how to trace the firearms through the manufacturer, wholesaler or dealer," explained Hand.
It's not always as simple as it sounds, especially if critical information is missing.
Here's how it works: The ATF sends the gun's make, model and serial number to its tracing center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The Tracing Center contacts the gun's manufacturer to locate the wholesaler who purchased it. In Runnels' case, the suspect gun was a 40-caliber Smith & Wesson made in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The wholesaler provided the name of the dealer or retailer. By law, retail outlets are required to maintain transaction or sales records. In Runnels' case, the retailer was K S & E Sports on the east side of Indianapolis. Sales records show Tarus Blackurn purchased the gun two months before the shootout that injured Runnels.
"That was a successful trace," recalled Hand.
But once the trace gets to the original purchaser, the trail can turn tricky, especially if the gun was sold on the black market by the original buyer or stolen.
So how did Demetrious Martin end up with his gun? Authorities couldn't question Martin because he died in the gunfight with Ofc. Runnels.
Investigators determined Blackburn made a "straw purchase" for Martin, a convicted felon. A straw purchase is buying a gun for a felon who's not supposed to have it.
Blackburn admitted he went to K S & E with Martin, paid $325, falsified the paperwork and then handed the gun over to Martin for $375, leaving him with a $50 profit by breaking federal law.
In turn, that $50 cost him a year in prison.
Not every case leads to answers.
"We have a better chance tracing a firearm, tracking the firearm back if there's a lower time to crime," explained Hand.
In other words, the less time between the actual purchase of a gun and when it turns up in a crime, the less likely the gun has changed hands and the more likely it is for law enforcement to fully trace it back.
The "time to crime" in the Runnels' case was just 63 days.
No one has to explain to Runnels the importance of tracing guns and getting "straw purchasers" off the street.
"There are police officers all over the country that are being shot and killed with guns that are being purchased through straw purchases or guns that are stolen," he said emphatically.
Runnels wants K S & E to answer for failing to stop Blackburn's straw purchase.
A landmark lawsuit filed by the Brady Center calls K S & E negligent and reckless, claiming the store has "sold hundreds of crime guns, placing it within the top 1 percent of crime gun sellers in America."
That claim is based on reports dating back to 2000.
"The gun stores need to be responsible when they sell the gun," insisted Runnels.
K S & E's attorneys call the the legal action unfounded. Under Indiana law, gun stores are granted immunity from litigation based on criminal or unlawful gun use by a third party, but Runnels and the Brady Center say it's time for a new chapter. They believe gun store owners are required by federal law to act as responsible gatekeepers and do their part to prevent guns from being sold to violent felons.
As part of an industry training, the Brady Center believes K S & E could have refused the sell of the gun to Blackburn.
"We need the community to be on board with this, to go after gun stores that are selling these guns illegally," said Runnels before he headed back out to fight crime in one of the busiest and most dangerous districts in the city.
The Owner of K S & E declined to speak with 13 Investigates for this story and K S & E attorneys did not return calls for comment other than to say they want the case dismissed.
The Marion County Crime lab ranks 12th in the nation for providing ballistics to the national Network used by ATF.
Just to give you an idea of how strict the federal guidelines are for gun traces: if the wrong information is divulged, Congress could cut ATF funding.
