ATF: Shop that sold Newtown weapons violated regulations hundreds of times

A gun store in East Windsor, Connecticut that sold two of the firearms found after the Newtown massacre recently saw its license revoked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after inspections found hundreds of willful violations of federal regulations on weapons sales.

While the sales of an AR-15 and Sig Sauer handgun to the Newtown shooter's mother were not illegal, an ATF report given to WFSB-TV reporter Len Besthoff explained that employees of Riverview Gun Sales knowingly sold weapons and ammunition to people who said they had committed felonies or were involved in domestic violence.

In another instance cited by the ATF, the store's employees allegedly failed to do a background check on a purchaser until a day after a gun was sold. Others were sold weapons without any background checks at all -- for a total of "over 500" different violations -- despite 11 different occasions from 2004-2010 of ATF agents providing instructions on how to comply with federal regulations.

"The large number of repeat violations demonstrates that, the licensee and his employees purposefully disregarded and/or were plainly indifferent to their Gun Control Act obligations," the document (PDF) explains.

This video is from WFSB-TV, aired Wednesday, April 10, 2013.

WFSB 3 Connecticut