What happens when a woman strolls into your store, fills out the requisite forms, passes her NICS checks and buys some firearms from you? Not too much other than you get to put some money in the till that lets you cover your costs and maybe take a little home. What happens when, years later, her son shoots her in the head and then massacres 26 women and children with some of those same guns? “The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has permanently revoked the federal firearms license of East Windsor, Conn., gun store owner David LaGuercia, whose shop reportedly sold guns used in the Newtown school massacre and a second Connecticut mass shooting.” . . .
LaGuercia lost the unlucky customer lottery, a game of chance he probably didn’t even realize he was playing. As lohud.com reports:
ATF spokeswoman Deb Seifert told The Journal News on Thursday that she could not be more specific on the reasons LaGuercia’s license was revoked. It was revoked Dec. 20 and the 60-day time frame to appeal has expired.
“It’s been revoked,” Seifert said. “It’s final at this point.”
The store’s still open, trying to scrape by.
LaGuercia could not be reached Thursday for comment at the store, which continues to sell ammunition, clothes and other accessories, said a female employee, who declined to give her name.
There’s no way to know what, if any actual violations LaGuercia may or may not have committed that justified the ATF pulling his ticket. Then again, how many FFLs could have passed the full-on rectal probe he no doubt endured as the dealer who sold the guns the Sandy Hook murderer used?
Old news: http://www.wfsb.com/story/20497633/sources-gun-store-had-federal-firearms-license-pulled-after-raid
“The East Windsor Police Department said Riverview Gun Sales had no idea the AR-15 Marsh stole was missing. Management at the store didn’t know about 11 guns that Marsh had allegedly stolen last year until they were notified by detectives.”
Guns were stolen and I don’t think they reported them as such
that would be enough
In this case, I don’t think it was BECAUSE of Nancy. It was however because most shops I am sure would not pass muster if inspected at the level that these guys were. A normal check most pass. They were probably in good standing for years. Sad to see a small family owned business go south.
Thank you for the investigative journalism.
But, once again proving that you so-called lawful gun owners are first cousins to the criminals, Robert assigned the revocation to one of those totally unfair “rectal probes” which no one could pass.
FFLs who allow guns to walk out the back door should receive more than a suspension of their license.
hows about the government that sends them to mexico?
Are we actually that closely related to you mikey?
How many car dealerships are closed when someone causes a multicar pileup? I could ask many similar questions, but you see the point.
So this is a cases of this site not being honest. The store was under investigation already because as many as 11 guns had been stolen but not reported as such. This is against the law there.
The Lanza tie in is just media hype….covered by this media outlet as well.
That’s why we just do away with FFL’s altogether. Gun sales should be non of their business anyways.
Just like the BS of Democrats saying gun stores and gun manufacturers should be able to be sued if you murder someone with a gun. No one says that Ford or the dealership where you got the car should be sued if you run someone over – it’s just ridiculous that they look at the logical response and then do the exact opposite if it involves a gun.
Little by little the constant scraping and whittling at our rights continues by this illegal regime. I am more than convinced that Mr. LaGuecia was told by BATF not to appeal the revocation or he would be charged as an accessory after the fact for the murders. It’s the only plausible explanation.
complete and utter BS. darn!
So the question remains; did LaGuercia screw up, or was he just screwed. Let us know when the info is available.
As the reason for pulling his ticket have not been released-one needs to withhold judgement. However hearing from the Former FFL may be enlightening, that is if he is ALLOWED to speak without fear of incarceration.
I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. I’m not ready to squeeze the trigger on some kind of purposed oppression of this fella by the gub’ment. Not yet, anyways.
It’s an old story. Why is this important now?
I don’t believe to many people in CT are going to cry over Riverview.
Is it worse than Hoffmans!? That would be a stretch. Or are people back home just that bad now?
Please read my link, they had 20 guns they couldn’t account for. This moron deserves to lose his license.
Sorry Chris- I read your link,but when it comes to guns the press often times gets it wrong before they get it right, if at all.
Chris Adams;
What part of “…shall not be infringed.” are you not understanding?
ANY law that infringes on any persons rights to keep and bear arms is unconstitutional.
The BATF is unconstitutional, and by extension, every action they perform an act of aggression against the United States, the Constitution, We The People, and YOU!
@RKBA
It is very dangerous to be right when all of the long established authorities are the ones who are wrong……
By your logic, slander and libel laws similarly infringe on 1A rights, and are unconstitutional.
+100. UNDENIABLY true! PLUS the ATF doesn’t use “common sense”!!
Seems odd the ATF couldn’t just say that was the main reason, instead of the stonewalling. Maybe it’s still under investigation or there’s more to it.
An employee running a scam on his employer should not cost the employer his business. The ATF and the whole concept of “licensed” dealers needs to be tossed on the scrapheap of history where it belongs.
I don’t know the particulars so I will not comment. However, if the issue was an employee running a scam out the FFL then the “Captain of the Ship” rule applies. If he didn’t know what was going on under his nose than that is probably due cause for sort of action. Until more details come out I will take a jaundiced view but will be open to an valid explanation.
Agreed all responsibility falls on the license holder. A simple system of control and inventory would have stopped this issue.
This is of course if the license holder was really not in on it, selling guns under the table for bigger profits.
An employee running a scam on his employer should not cost the employer his business.
This is not a situation where a single universal rule applies.
In the case of someone running an industrial explosives business, with products ranging from Tannerite to C4-grade shaped charges for building demolotion, I would expect that they’d be held to a pretty damn high standard for tracking inventory and preventing theft or unlawful sales.
I know not everyone here will accept this assertion, but I consider firearms to be dangerous products eligible for at least some level of regulation regarding their sale. Not quite at the level of explosives, obviously, but the same general principle applies IMHO.
I can’t help but wonder if they would have lost their license had Newtown not happened…
forget Gonzalez and 1835, it’s time for people to start remembering Athens TN!
It seems likely to me that ATF spokespuppet Deb Siefert declined specific comment to create an illusion of the Fed “doing something” in the wake of the Sandy Hook incident.
We are also talking about Journal News here- they don’t exactly have a stunning record of unbiased reporting. Couldn’t the reporter have asked a leading question to extract that quote and leverage the quote into making it look like the FFL is being punished for Sandy Hook?
They apparently were so incompetent at being an FFL that they never realized that dozens of rifles had been stolen from their inventory. They deserved to lose their license, although it had absolutely nothing to do with the Sandy Hook murders.
http://southwindsor.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/police-south-windsor-man-stole-weapons-because-he-was5939a88dae
As a local, I can honestly say that pulling there FFL likely had little/nothing to do with Lanza. They had dozens of rifles stolen, including one days before there FFL was pulled.
I think the Lanza thing only brought on some investigation, and it seems they had some poor “inventory control”
sorry don’t know how I missed the follow ups.
well if he inventory stolen and esp didn’t report it, he probably deserves whatever he gets.
“he probably deserves whatever he gets.”
FTS!! The fact that the BATF exists and that gun laws exists, is the problem here.
Look up “Stockholm Syndrome”. Stop loving your abuser.
Meanwhile we’ll close down Budweiser because the guy who killed some people while drunk driving had drank of the their beverages…
If the dealer can not take care of their inventory they dont need any inventory. If they werre really missing 20 guns and didnt know it they dont need to be in the business of selling them. Quite frankly there needs to be some research done before posting stories with bad info. Otherwise you are no different then the rest of the media. This site is supposed to be the truth remember, its in the name. Dont see how this is a second amendment issue. No rights were trampled, calm down.
Agreed, although almost all the stories about this event make it seem that it has something to do with Sandy Hook. So I’ll give TTAG a pass here. However, 5 minutes of googling is usually all it takes to get to the underlying truth so TTAG should really put in that effort.
I run a machine shop that has 30 employees and 100’s of customers. If something goes missing or stolen, should I be shut down?!? It’s my loss not anyone else. Pisses me off that you have been conditioned to think that firearms are any different than any other manufactured item. But that is what has happened in this country. They are made out to be an object of derision instead of the tool they are.
I haven’t been conditioned to think firearms are different from other manufactured items; I came to that conclusion all on my own. However, I love firearms and don’t think they’re objects of derision at all but they can be very dangerous in the wrong hands. This FFL managed to have over a dozen rifles stolen by a kid with schizophrenia who said he needed them because he was being teased at work. Now, I don’t believe in gun control but I do believe that we should make every reasonable attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of people like that.
Or cars, or knives, or baseball bats, or…. wait!!! None of those are natural rights that are protected by the bill of rights, so strike that.
The fact is, if someone shouldn’t or can’t be trusted to own a firearm, they shouldn’t be out on the streets.
And it is a contradiction to say that you don’t believe in “gun control but I do believe that we should make every reasonable attempt to keep firearms out of the hands of people” That is gun control my friend.
Unless you manufacture firearms then your business is not the same. Morally I would not want to know that there are 20 of my guns out there that could be in the hands of people who plan evil things. You may be fine with that but I am not. There is a big difference between having some tools or steel missing and having a firearm in the hands of someone who shouldnt have it. 2nd amendment or not there are people out there who should not have guns, knives, cars, or baseball bats. They should not be on the streets, but then you would just bitch about wrongful imprisonment. Human nature will never allow anything to be totally unrestricted, we are a violent species, and it will never change.
That’s why we have a people problem, not a gun problem.
Are you saying you wouldn’t notice the loss of a dozen or more items costing thousand of dollars? If you don’t you won’t be in business for long. If the reason he was shut down is for not reporting the stolen guns he couldn’t have stayed in business much longer without the government shut down.
Are they going to revoke the medical license from the OB that delivered Adam Lanza and shut down the hospital where he was born? What utter bullsh!t!
This is just a move to further the “Universal Background Check” agenda, aka Universal Gun Registration. If the ATF (Federal Government) can strong arm enough FFL Gun Dealers, they can get them to pass more freedom/liberty stripping legislation.
I agree. Some people here don’t need the government to take their rights away; they’ve already given them up willingly.
Hmmm, seems like not knowing where your guns are would definitely constitute them taking your license. Maybe this guy can get someone working for him to get an FFL..cough…cough..RJF…cough…cough. Same story there.
Considering the new laws just enacted by the Connecticut government, the G-Men did LaGuercia a favor. I doubt he’d be in business much longer considering most of his products were banned as of yesterday.
Should we be happily awaiting similar “favors” from the federal government? I bet you could get your “favors” expedited with a simple phone call…
Freedom of information act request to get the details of the whys and wherefores from the Feds themselves? Anyone?
The store lacked the requisite crystal ball to know before hand all the bad things were going to happen. That’s about the extent of the reasoning. Next up: lawsuits by the victim families.
Yay, it’s Minority Report.
I was looking at a picture of Adam Lanza the other day marveling at how many people that pathetic little bastard has screwed. It looks like he managed to screw over yet another person posthumously.
This revocation is a bullshit PR move by the ATF. I am at a loss for words. Right now all I can think of are swear words.
So, TTAG is biased, too. No wonder I have not seen any reporting on how some online stores other than CTD raising prices insanely. I thought these guys were unbiased. God Damn, can not believe the right or left.
Do you really need TTAG to tell you about sites raising their prices? I really don’t care enough to have articles written about each site that gouges. CTD gouged really badly and they still are so they get the most attention for it. You can start your own blog and do firearm gouge watch.
I’m here in CT battling through this gun grab. I think Riverview deserves this. My feeling is that irresponsible gun owners as well as sellers do no good for our past time. There for upholding of current laws are a good thing. However this new legislation is rediculious. Unfortunately has made me callised to the tragedy in Sandy Hook.
Dave is a good guy and runs a good shop. His staff are friendly and helpful. They had a part-time employee who had previously been convicted of financial crimes against the U.S.Govt. who stole approx. 34 guns. Had he been appropriately prosecuted by the U.S.Govt. for the >$130,000K that he stole in a complex fraud, he would have been a prohibited person, convicted felon, and non eligible to work in a gunstore or buy any guns. Instead he was given probation which kept him eligible.
Hopefully this store will reopen with a new licensee and will continue their level of service. Unfortunately I think they are being held to an unreasonably high standard of behavior when there was criminal activity by some well-practiced thieves. The ATF has committed worse sins in my judgment, namely Waco and Fast&Furious. Good luck Dave, you keep 2A alive for those of us in Northern CT.
1 01/01/2020 to 12/31/2020 :. Solution is: the U.S.A. max number of F.F.L.s Retailer Gun Dealers Business is cap limit is (5000) F.F.L.s too! No extras not be added too! 2. The States should have enforced number limit as a; is cap limit is (100) F.F.L.s holders too! No extras F.F.L.s Firearms Gun Dealers Business not be added too! Agreed! This will be forever & forever too! It will never Change to no more too!
1. Beyond The Year of 2020 U.S.A. No#1 And beyond too! The Number of Firearm Retailers Business Still 5000 F.F.L.s holders Class-1 (01) is (0.66 %) too! Class-2 (02) is (0.33% ) too! 2. State Grovernments is 50 States too! the Max cap limit (100) F.F.L.s . Class-1 is(01) is (0.66%) Class-2 is (02) (0.33%) too! never change at all in the future too! agree!
1. Starting on 2014 Agenda is (01/01/2014 to 12/31/2014 ) The # 3 Year Renewals will be $ 2500.00 too! For Class-1is (01) too! Class-2 is (02) too! Every time They Renewals there F.F.L.s License too! The State Fee is $1250.00 per Every there years period too! Agree!!! or beyond the Future Years in the Future!!!
1. 01/01/2014 to 12/31/2014 A.D too! The Class-3 is (09) is 3 year Renewals is no set Price for Class-3 is (09) too! is $ 10,000.00 or more to, For a Class-3 is (09) Full auto Gun Dealers License 3- year Renewals too Fees too! Or More to No set Price too!
1. The National U.S.A is 50 States in all too! Common Wealth Nations are part of the U.S.A too! Agreed! Complaint is How many Gun Dealers Retailers Businesses are (01)(02 Regular F.F.L.s holders/an Class-03 Is (09) N.F.A. Rules do apply too! An Class-1 Is (01) With Class-03 Tax Stamp too! Is Under N.F.A Rules too! An Class-1 Is (01) & (02) Pawn Shop& Gun Shop Licence do Sell Full Auto Weapons too! It True!!! This Needs to be Check into Immediately now ! Agreed!!! are selling Firearms to Criminal s With Arrest Records too! By Town Police,Township Police City Police Departments Sheriffs Dept ,State Police,of 25 States, Highway Patrol & State Police of 25 States too! Solution is: The Federal Law Enforcement Of A,T.F. Should cut of Renewals out too! Of F.F.L.s Licences For Retailers Gun Dealers Store Fronts Businesses & Commercial Properties too! The State Licences Is Issued By the Counties Sheriffs Dept of Licence For State Licence to sell all Firearms all too! One State Licence is Required only to Sell all Firearms At State Level With the State you Live in only agree!! The Sheriffs Dept of Country Can Revoked your Licence too! If you are selling Guns to Foreign Criminals are not Citizens of the 50 States too! Are Committing Bad crimes in States ,Counties.Cities ,Town Ships, Towns too! Most of them are not Registered With U.S.A . Immigration Dept of U.S.A too! Agree! The Country They come from will pay for the Airline Flight Back to The Country They Come from too! And Never come back to U.S.A too! Therese Are Foreign Criminals Felons of other Counties too! Agree!
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