Burnsville Killer's Girlfriend Allegedly Bought Guns in Straw Purchase

AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File

We already knew the Burnsville killer lost his gun rights and tried, unsuccessfully, to get them back. We also know that he got his gun via a straw purchase.

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But we also shouldn't be surprised that a lot of people in Minnesota think there should be more legislation to prevent such things. How they think that would work is beyond me.

See, one of the problems that we're always going to have is that convicted felons are going to have relationships. Now, this isn't a bad thing for them since relationships provide all kinds of good things that might help them walk the straight and narrow, but it also may provide them with people who will do illegal things for them.

Sort of like the Burnsville killer.

A Burnsville woman is accused of straw purchasing the firearms her boyfriend used to shoot and kill three first responders and injure a fourth at their home last month.

Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, 35, faces one count of conspiracy, five counts of straw purchasing, and five counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. She will make her initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday.

Since September, Dyrdahl worked to obtain guns for Shannon Cortez Gooden despite the fact Gooden could not legally own or possess firearms, authorities said.

On Feb. 18, Gooden used the two AR-15-style semiautomatic firearms Dyrdah bought for him to ambush first responders, killing Officer Matthew Ruge, Officer Paul Elmstrand, and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth. 

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Dyrdahl and Gooden had been dating since 2016. In 2020, Dyrdahl filed a letter supporting Gooden’s petition to restore his firearm rights, which he lost as a result of his 2008 felony assault conviction.

Despite knowing Gooden’s felony status, from September 2023 onward, Dyrdahl purchased five firearms from two different federal firearms licensees at Gooden’s direction, authorities said.

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In other words, there's really not any doubt that she knew he was a felon. Since the 4473 specifically asks if you're buying a gun for yourself, she knew that doing otherwise was illegal. I don't see her getting off on this one.

And yet, it's illegal. The entire premise of gun control laws, like the laws against straw purchases, is sold to the American public as something that will prevent criminals from getting guns, yet here we are, talking about yet another case when it didn't.

It's not the first we've even talked about this week.

What's more, there's absolutely no way to prevent this sort of thing without infringing on the rights of ordinary, law-abiding gun buyers who don't deserve to be treated like criminals because they want to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.

And even then, it won't prevent people from straw buying. It might make it riskier, but someone will still do it because they're in love with the lowlife scumbag who wants them to break the law.

There are lessons from Burnsville that won't be talked about, in part because every aspect of this undermines the gun control narrative. That's why this isn't getting the attention that Kansas City is getting. More people were killed, though fewer were shot, but the national media is remarkably silent.

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That's because this shows how little gun control does.

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