If you live in Sault, Ontario and don't know your way around the Michigan side, the best way to understand where Stinger Manufacturing is located is to look across the river to the old Edison Sault powerhouse.
Stinger makes its controversial guns, disguised as pens and jack-knives, at 562 East Spruce Street (shown).
That's just back of the powerhouse, alongside the power canal.
If you look at our photograph, in the foreground you can see part of the Spruce Street bridge over the power canal.
Stinger doesn't occupy the whole building there.
562 East Spruce is owned by Elliot Heating & Cooling Inc., which has added two additions to the main floor as well as second-storey offices since it occupied the former gas station 20 years ago.
By all accounts, Elliot Heating and Cooling is an exemplary business, the kind Sault Ste. Marie can be proud to call its own.
At one time during the 1980s, it employed more than 100 people, with satellite operations in Marquette and Traverse City.
Today, Charles Elliot serves as president of the Michigan Chapter of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.
His company is also known for its strong support of another industry group known as the Excellence Alliance, which gave Elliot Heating and Cooling its national Shining Star award three years ago.
Elliot is unique among Excellence Alliance members in that all of its employees donate part of their paycheques to help the alliance's scholarships and other educational initiatives.
A controversial tenant
Elliot leases about 1,000 square feet of his building, accessible from an unmarked side door, to Stinger Manufacturing Corp.
Headed by Marc Lefebvre of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Stinger is a good tenant who pays on time and causes no problems, Elliot says.
As landlord, Elliot is aware of what Stinger manufactures and has no problem with it because the products are legal.
As SooToday.com has reported over the past week, Stinger claims to manufacture the world's smallest guns.
Its product line includes conventional pistols that are smaller than a credit card, and firearms packed into ink pens that Stinger says can be converted to potentially lethal weapons in just two seconds.
Inspection by telephone
Stinger Manufacturing does business under firearms manufacturing licence number 4-38-01240, granted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on May 8, 2002.
ATF documents obtained under freedom-of-information law by the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based gun-control lobby, show that the federal agency claims that Stinger was "inspected" prior to the granting of its licence.
This inspection, required to determine whether a company qualifies for a licence and understands federal requirements for record-keeping and carrying on a business, was conducted according to a three-page "inspection workplan."
However, the documents supplied to the Violence Policy Centre contain no evidence that ATF officials ever visited Sault Ste. Marie to inspect the premises.
Information missing from inspection plan
In fact, there's nothing to indicate that so-called "field" staff ever stepped out of their Grand Rapids office in connection with the application.
The inspection was done entirely "via phone," the documents reveal, on May 2, 2002.
Through this telephone inspection process, the inspector was amazingly able to discern that the premises on Spruce Street were suitable for manufacture of firearms, according to annotations made on the inspection work plan.
The work plan required descriptions to be given of any other businesses operated from the premises, however no such descriptions were provided by the inspector.
National Firearms Act
Also apparently left blank on the work plan was the place were the inspector was supposed to indicate whether Stinger planned to manufacture, deal in or import firearms under the National Firearms Act, the statute that normally covers pen guns, cane guns, and other so-called 'gadget guns.'
National Firearms Act (NFA) weapons require extensive background checks, usually taking months, before such firearms can be bought.
Stinger says its pen guns are not NFA weapons because they must be reconfigured (folded) to be fired, a procedure that the company boasts takes just two seconds. Three pages of environmental and water-quality reports appear to have been filled out by Lefebvre, with 'N/A' answers recorded for many of the questions asked. The field officer claimed to have worked 19 hours on the Stinger application, seven hours in April and 12 in May of last year.
To read the ATF's final inspection report on Stinger Manufacturing, please click here.
Wholesale only
The 26 pages of documents released to the Violence Policy Center also show that Stinger sells its guns only at wholesale.
Because of muncipal ordinances, the company is not authorized to sell at retail from its Sault Michigan headquarters.
Hours of business are listed as 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
"The zoning requirements were reviewed with Mr. Lefebrvre during the inspection process," says one report.
"He stated no retail sales would be conducted at the premises and that Stinger Manufacturing Corp. would be manufacturing pistols for wholesale to other licensees."
Claims 'Canadean' citizenship
On a required citizenship declaration, Lefebvre indicated that he's a 'Canadean' [sic], authorized to work in Michigan under a permit that was due to expire on March 31st of this year.
The certificate of incorporation for Stinger Manufacturing, issued by the State of Delaware in February 2002, shows that Lefebvre's mailing address then was in Hanmer, north of Sudbury, although a SooToday.com investigation has revealed he now resides in Sault Ste. Marie's P-patch.
Stinger's products have drawn criticism in recent weeks from the Violence Policy Center, which wants ATF to re-classify them as NFA weapons with more stringent ownership provisions.
The disguised handguns have also prompted warnings from law enforcement and emergency response officials.
Lefebvre agreed to meet with SooToday.com Saturday at a downtown location, but changed his mind after talking to his lawyer.
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