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Elwood and her fiancé likely face 70 to 87 months in prison for the straw purchase scheme
A woman who purchased nearly 100 guns for black-market buyers pleaded guilty this week to one federal charge.
As part of a plea deal, Sarah Jean Elwood, 34, of Crystal admitted to buying 97 guns over the course of a year - including 62 in a single month - from gun shops across the Twin Cities, and then reselling them to third parties for $100 each.
This process, known as "straw purchasing," is a significant driver of the illegal gun market that is arming criminals and driving violent crime in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In a typical straw purchase, the buyer has no felony conviction or other factor disqualifying them from owning a firearm. But they are really buying the weapon for someone else, who's either legally ineligible or doesn't want a paper trail linking them to the weapon.
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