Gun Dealer Gets Eight-Month Term for Evading Taxes
A Fountain Valley gun dealer was sentenced this week to eight months for evading more than $450,000 in taxes on his gun sales.
Don Mitchell, 66, who owned and operated Mitchell Arms in Santa Ana, will spend four months in prison and four months in home detention, Assistant U.S. Atty. David Lavine said. His sentence begins Aug. 30.
Mitchell was ordered to pay the back taxes to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Prosecutors said Mitchell had more than $4 million in gun sales from 1991 to 1994 but didn’t pay the 10% excise tax due the agency.
During the 1980s, Mitchell had run into similar problems with the IRS and was given the opportunity to repay the back taxes. He apparently did not.
Mitchell could lose his federal firearms license because of the conviction, Lavine said. His business is currently closed.
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