Robert Altchiler defends David Laguercia and Riverview Sales

1. Lawyer: Gun license revocation, Newtown unrelated
Lee Higgins, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News 1:20 p.m. EDT April 7, 2013
Lawyer for gun store owner says the ATF's move to revoke the store's federal firearms license began 18
months before the Dec. 14 shooting.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' move to revoke a
Connecticut gun-store owner's federal firearms license days after the Newtown massacre has nothing to do
with the store selling two guns found at the shooting scene (http://www.lohud.com/article/20130406
/NEWS/304060050/Lawyer-Gun-dealer-s-license-revocation-unrelated-Newtown), the store owner's lawyer told
The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News on Saturday.
The Journal News on Thursday broke the news that the ATF revoked the license of David LaGuercia, owner of Riverview Gun Sales in East Windsor,
Conn., on Dec. 20, after the ATF raided his store in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
LaGuercia's lawyer, Robert Altchiler, said Saturday that the ATF began proceedings to revoke the dealer's federal firearms license, or FFL, 18 months
before the massacre on Dec. 14. He did not reveal why the license was revoked.
"The formal basis of the revocation had nothing to do with Sandy Hook, what Nancy and Adam Lanza did, or Newtown," he said in a statement. "Nothing.
Period."
STORY: ATF revokes license of gun dealer tied to Newtown (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/04/gun-dealer-license-revoked
/2053905/)
ATF spokeswoman Deb Seifert declined to say why LaGuercia's license was revoked and referred questions about any possible criminal investigation to
the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Altchiler said two guns found at the massacre scene were sold at Riverview Gun Sales, one in March 2010 and the other in March 2011, but didn't say
which ones.
A full administrative hearing was held in August regarding the revocation and "obviously nothing that occurred in that hearing had anything to do with
Nancy and Adam Lanza or the purchases made by Nancy Lanza at Riverview Sales," he said.
On Dec. 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their Newtown home then fired 154 shots in less than five minutes at Sandy
Hook, killing 20 children and six adults, before killing himself.
Altchiler said he's been following media coverage in the aftermath of the massacre and the news broke that LaGuercia lost his license the same week
that Connecticut changed its gun laws. LaGuercia, who has had his license since at least 2005, had 60 days to appeal the revocation and that time frame
has expired.
"I am commenting to clarify a few things related to this all," he said. "First, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives initiated
administrative revocation proceedings seeking to revoke the FFL 18 months before Nancy and Adam Lanza did what they did at Sandy Hook Elementary
School.
"Yes, Nancy and Adam Lanza. The administrative specifications that formally formed the basis of the revocation obviously had nothing to do with
Newtown."
Altchiler would not confirm or deny any criminal investigation into LaGuercia. He said the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut has always "been willing to
engage in what I would describe as a meaningful, open and fair discourse with me on a variety of topics, in every case I have had with the office."
Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment Saturday. ATF officials could not immediately be reached.
According to the ATF, it's rare for the bureau to revoke a federal firearms license. Out of 69,000 federal firearms licensees in business in fiscal year 2012,
the bureau conducted more than 11,400 firearms compliance inspections and sought revocation on approximately 97 occasions — less than 1 percent of
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2. the inspections conducted, an ATF Fact Sheet says.
LaGuercia's store made news in the past after gun thefts went undetected.
Three days prior to the massacre, 26-year-old Jordan Marsh of South Windsor, Conn., is accused of walking into the store and stealing an AR-15-style
rifle from the counter, federal court records say.
Store employees didn't realize it until Hartford, Conn., police recovered the gun in a hotel room six days later, records say. Marsh is facing a federal
charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and is being held without bond. He had a prior conviction after stealing guns from Riverview, court
records show.
Also, in 2007, The Hartford Courant reported that LaGuercia contacted the ATF after determining his store could not account for 33 firearms.
A man who occasionally worked there was charged with stealing the guns.
In a statement in December, LaGuercia, of Agawam, Mass., said he was "absolutely appalled" to learn that a gun he sold to Nancy Lanza may have been
used by her son in the Newtown massacre.
LaGuercia said he was cooperating with law enforcement.
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