PARIS – Local police are disturbed that a man involved in a police standoff Tuesday was able to purchase a handgun after another gun was seized from him earlier in the month after his arrest on a domestic violence charge.

A woman who said she was victimized by Kyle Edwards Hunt, 27, of 23 East Oxford Road, also told the Sun Journal that Hunt purchased another handgun after his Derringer had been taken from him by police.

Hunt was arrested Tuesday after locking himself in his residence for three-and-a-half hours. Police said Hunt previously used the handgun in the commission of a sexual assault against the woman prior to the standoff. During the standoff, he fired three shots from a Taurus .357-caliber Magnum pistol that he obtained after the Derringer was confiscated.

Hunt was arrested March 11 on charges of terrorizing with a dangerous weapon, stalking and domestic assault. He was accused of displaying a weapon to a woman and confronting her at her apartment and at a business. Hunt was released the same day on $1,000 bail, but police seized the loaded two-shot Derringer from his truck.

“It’s been since probably November, October that he’s been really, really bad with the whole gun thing,” the woman told the Sun Journal. “Every time he sees me he makes it known that he has a gun.”

She said Hunt purchased the Derringer after several other firearms were confiscated by Hunt’s father after the younger Hunt threatened suicide. She said he purchased the handgun used in the standoff after the Derringer was seized, but didn’t know where or how.

According to conditions set in Hunt’s bail and in the protection from abuse order, which was served on March 12, Hunt was not to possess any firearms and was to forfeit those he did have.

Police said Hunt’s purchase exemplifies a loophole in the laws meant to keep guns away from those who would use them in domestic violence crimes.

“If he had a conviction for a domestic assault, that would pop up,” said Norway police Chief Robert Federico. “The big problem with that is that there is nothing preventing someone from purchasing a firearm through a private interaction.” Those convicted of domestic assaults are prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms and their names are entered into a national database that licensed gun sellers must check before selling a gun, but the database lists convictions only, not pending charges.

“We can follow the rules of the protection orders that the judges are issuing,” said Sgt. Rickie Jack of the Oxford Police Department. “But what’s stopping him from going out and getting another (gun)? Nothing.”

Federico said such a purchase could take place through a family member or advertisements that do not require a background check as licensed gun dealers do.

Paul Brook, owner of Woodman’s Sporting Goods in Norway, said private sales have no restrictions aside from age limits and a ban on interstate sales. He said applications for purchasing firearms from his store require a government-issued picture ID, a questionnaire and a review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Brook said he will not sell a firearm to someone if he is uncomfortable with the sale and feels the person will use it in a harmful manner.

“I typically turn down more sales than the enforcement does,” Brook said.

While a person convicted of domestic assault may not purchase a firearm, the restriction does not apply to someone who has been arrested but not convicted. Jack said he thinks protection from abuse orders should appear in background checks.

Federico said he was not supporting a prohibition of firearms, but rather noting how the lack of a background check in private sales could lead to a sidestepping of court-ordered weapons prohibition.

“This is a prime example where, because that prohibition had those loopholes, it was possible and it could have been much worse than it turned out to be,” Federico said.

The victim in Hunt’s alleged crimes requested the protection from abuse order after Hunt’s arrest on March 11.

“I hope he stays in jail for awhile so he actually gets clean,” she said. “And I hope he thinks about his kids when he makes choices. The kids are the ones that are really being affected by this.”