Q: Did you know what the people who were buying your guns were doing with them?

ST: I didn't care. I didn't ask him. You know, I didn't want to be involved. I mean that's part of my denial, you know? I don't want to know who you're selling them to, just give me my money. And eventually I started caring. Actually, a gun almost came back to me. A friend of mine called me and said, I got this gun, I want you to look at it. Some girl wants to sell it to me. And I go over, and I...and I look at this gun, and it's one of mine. And he -- a friend of mine from San Francisco and this girl, I don't know her from Adam, and it comes back, and so I started realizing that this is a serious problem. Because you know for something like that to come back, that means I'm putting just too much out there. That's a little too close to home.

Q: How many guns did you sell?

ST:In court they finally calculated the numbers, which is about eleven hundred and eighty-two.

Q: What drives demand for guns?

ST:That question is very interesting because it...we talk about market forces. It's a business like anything else. Supply and demand. I do believe that the illicit drug trade really is what fuels the whole need for firearms in the street. You sell drugs in the street, you better be armed, because you have a couple problems. A, the police might come at you at any moment. If they start shooting at you, some people will shoot back. Especially if they got three strikes. So the second problem is you have other individuals who will basically come and try to take your money. You have to be prepared. And then three, you just have the simple disputes with an individual who is armed too, and if you're not armed, it's like the wild wild west if you will. So more and more people are doing this trade every day, despite what the government will tell you in terms of like the drugs are getting better -- you need to have a firearm.

Q: Is the manufacturer liable for gun violence?

ST:I don't think they're responsible for the gun violence that's on the street, and blaming them is just an easy way for the government to point the finger at somebody. It's easy to point the finger at me because I broke all the laws, but not your own system. No one's having interviews with the ATF and saying what's wrong with your system. They're saying well why did you do that? Well why was it so easy to break the law, as opposed to saying -- this guy broke the law. I'm not saying I'm the smartest individual, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure things out by taking it a step at a time. Which is why I did what I did. I sent a license in, it came back, and they said you can buy. I mean that's really what...the essence of the crime was. That manufacturer, she's trying to make a buck.

Q: How is your relationship with your son? How would you feel if he were to buy a gun?

ST:We have a good relationship. My son, we're very close. I will raise my son when I'm out. I will hopefully put my son in a position that he can make that choice for himself. He won't need to buy a firearm. And I think about those things also. You know I can't say that it won't happen, but when I finish my time, I'll be there before he's a teenager. Before he needs to pick up a firearm I can explain to him the rights and wrongs. I've been on both sides of the issue.

If he did get caught buying a gun, would you hold the person who sold him the gun responsible?

ST:My son or any individual -- if they're going to need a firearm, they're going to find one. Regardless who sells it. Whether they get it from a friend of theirs that goes and buys it for them or the buy it from a guy off the street. It's the need is the problem. It's the need. Why does my son need a gun? Why does your son need a gun? What are they doing? What are their opportunities in life? Why are they needing these weapons is the biggest question. Why was I successful? I had demand for the weapons.

Q: What will you tell your son about your experiences in the gun trade?

ST:I want to let him understand that you can't really take things for granted. You can't take doing something that'll affect someone else for granted. And that's...that's really what I did. You know I took the blood money. People talk about selling their soul to the devil. I truly feel like I did that. I knew what I was doing was wrong but yet still I broke all the laws and did everything I could so that I could continue and do what I did. And for what gain? You know, what did I gain? I gained monetary freedom for a while. And it felt great. But that feeling doesn't overcome the pain I feel being here away from my family and my life that I had so many great plans for, I put on hold until I'm able to get back and do what I have to do. It just doesn't equal, and I think that I didn't ask myself that question. So my response to my son some day is to explain to him: before you partake in the activity that can get you put away for X number of years, you really need to think about what you're going to lose, what you're going to give up versus what you're going to get.

Q: Has the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) wised up?

ST:I think I showed the ATF that they have a little problem to fix. I showed them the loophole in their system ... I don't know. The question is with the distributors, because at this point it's still based on them. Are they going to be able to tell the next time someone forges a license and orders guns, but still sells them to other individuals? The ATF is trying to, you know, show people that yeah, they have systems in place to catch these things, but the relationship between the distributors and the ATF has not changed. It's still up to the distributor. In other words, if I had a license today, and I sent that in to Southern Ohio Guns under a different name, they would sell guns to me. That relationship hasn't changed. (Editor's note: Southern Ohio Gun Distributors, in order to be released from several lawsuits by twelve California cities and counties, has since agreed to take steps that go above and beyond current federal and state law to prevent firearms from being sold into the underground market in California, including taking extra precaution to verify dealer licenses.)

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