Shop That Sold Newtown Guns: "Over 500 Violations"

Imagine being one of the parents of one of those 20 shot and killed children—and reading this:

The document states the agency inspected and found violations at Riverview in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

During the one in 2011, "the licensee committed over 500 violations," ATF documents stated.

The ATF inspection in 2011 revealed that Riverview employees:

• Allowed a man who said he was a felon to buy ammo and handle firearms.
• Let someone buy a firearm and didn't do background check until the next day.
• Sold firearms to two people without checking if they were prohibited from buying.

The ATF though did find fault with Riverview Gun Sales Owner David Laguercia, who is the federal firearms license holder.

According to ATF documents, "between September 2004 and January 2010, the licensee received 11 separate instances of instruction from the ATF regarding how to comply with federal firearms laws and regulations."

ATF document (pdf).

Beyond heartbreaking.

USAToday:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found more than 500 violations of federal firearms regulations at the Connecticut gun store that sold two guns found at the scene of the Newtown elementary school massacre, but didn't yank the store owner's license until after the massacre, records obtained by The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News show. [...]

The final Dec. 20 revocation notice listed more than 500 violations in all, including that Dibella, the gun store employee, sold ammunition on at least two occasions between January 2010 and July 2011 to Wilfred Hellandbrand, "whom he had reason to believe was a felon."

The Atlantic:" It Took Five Years of Violations Before the Newtown Gun Store Got Shut Down."

You have got to ask youself: How many other gun stores - how many thousands of other gun stores - have similar violation histories?

• The Newtown Action Alliance