Crime & Safety

Riverview Sales Firearms License Revoked After Lengthy ATF Investigation

The East Windsor gun shop lost its license months after the revocation process began, an attorney told lohud.com.

Riverview Sales, Inc., has lost its license to sell guns after several months of investigation by the ATF, according to a story on lohud.com.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided the East Windsor gun shop six days after the horrific shootings in Newtown on Dec. 14 and soon after a South Windsor man was arrested and charged for stealing weapons from the business, an action that had occurred several times at the shop, according to police.  

On Saturday, an attorney representing the shop’s owner, David LaGuercia, told lohud.com, part of The Journal News, that the federal agency had started proceedings to revoke the shop’s license to sell firearms nearly 18 months ago. It was just by chance that the day that the license was revoked occurred so soon after the Newtown shootings, the attorney told the paper.  

The investigation had nothing to do with the fact that the shop sold two guns to Nancy Lanza, the mother of Adam Lanza, who shot and killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother on Dec. 14, the attorney told the paper.  

The license was revoked about one week after the shootings, according to the Hartford Courant. LaGuerica had 60 days to appeal the revocation and did not take action, according to an article in the Courant.  

The East Windsor gun shop has had a history of issues, particularly with being unable to track its inventory.  

A South Windsor man was arrested in December after he attempted to steal a long rifle from Riverview Sales. Jordan Marsh, 26, was charged with third-degree larceny, first-degree robbery, theft of a firearm and carrying of dangerous weapons. Marsh had previously stolen weapons from the shop, according to police.  

In 2007, LaGuercia notified the ATF that 33 guns were missing from his store, according to a Hartford Courant story. Of those 33 guns, 28 were recovered when police searched the home of Brian H. McClelland, of Somers, who was a frequent customer of the store and helped out on occasion, the Courant reported.


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