GB gun store linked to PA shooting

GREEN BAY - An online gun dealer in Green Bay has been linked to another mass shooting.

TGSCOM Inc. president Eric Thompson said the company sold gun accessories to the man who went on a deadly shooting rampage at a Pittsburgh-area health club Tuesday.

Forty-eight-year-old George Sodini killed himself after fatally shooting three women and wounding nine others at an aerobics class. Sodini left behind bitter writings and videos that detail years of frustration about not having a girlfriend. Police said he had been planning the attack for some time.

Thompson said his company sold Sodini a Glock Magloader and a Glock Factory Magazine for $46 in April 2008. TGSCOM Inc. operates about 160 different gun related websites.

Authorities have not said whether the accessories purchased through TGSCOM Inc. were used in the health club shooting.

It's the third time TGSCOM has been linked to mass shootings since 2007. The Green Bay-based dealer sold accessories and guns to the shooters of massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

"I would like to say it's unlucky in a sense but we're also probably the biggest online dealer of guns," said Thompson.

Thompson said he believes people need to be able to have access to guns in order to protect themselves. Some anti-violence groups disagree, saying more guns are not a good thing.

"Rather than providing some higher degree of protection for individuals or society as a whole, there's actually increased risk associated," said Jeri Bonavia, the director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort or WAVE.

"It's not the gun that killed anybody. It's the guy ... It's this sick man that did it," said Thompson.

It's a debate that will be around as long as guns are.