Pittsburgh-area man who bought over 200 guns accused of trafficking firearms
A Ross Township man who investigators said bought over 200 guns is accused of trafficking after six of his firearms were recovered by law enforcement in different states with obliterated serial numbers.
Forty-three-year-old Benjamin Ford is charged with six counts of illegally selling or transferring firearms after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General's Allegheny County Gun Violence Task Force.
According to the criminal complaint filed by a special agent, Ford bought 205 guns from 2013 to 2024, with the bulk of them purchased from 2020 onward. Since then, investigators said six firearms bought by Ford have been recovered by law enforcement in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
In each case, the agent said Ford was the last known purchaser, and all six firearms were possessed by people who weren't legally allowed to buy guns. All the serial numbers were obliterated and had to be restored by a crime lab, the agent said.
"It's our position that Mr. Ford has always been law abiding and he's been actually a very good patriot to our country," Ford's defense attorney, Phil DiLucente, said.
But investigators said Ford's behavior, including buying the same manufacturer and caliber of a firearm within a short period of time and from different stores, is indicative of straw purchasing.
"When you have 200 guns that are registered to you, who knows what happened," DiLucente said.
"It's not as if my client had to take an inventory every morning of every single gun that might be available to him," DiLucente added.
In laying out evidence in the criminal complaint, the agent writes that there's "probable cause that Benjamin Ford has purchased these firearms legally with the intent to illegally traffic said firearms and did not properly transfer said firearms as is required by law."
According to the criminal complaint, when the agent went to visit Ford at his home in Ross Township in May of 2025 to ask about a pistol, Ford "became very uncomfortable" and said the gun had been stolen. The agent said Ford said he meant to report the firearm as stolen but never got around to it.
KDKA learned through multiple sources that Ford works as a battery foreman at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works Plant. KDKA reached out to U.S. Steel for comment but is waiting to hear back.
