Newtown Gun Store License Revoked: Sold Weapons Used in Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

The gun store that reportedly sold the weapons used in the shooting in Newtown, Conn. at Sandy Hook Elementary School has had its firearms license permanently revoked by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials from the agency confirmed.

In the days following the Dec. 14 massacre, the ATF raided Riverview Gun Sales in East Windsor, Conn., roughly 65 miles northeast of Newtown, voiding the store's federal firearms license for good on Dec. 20. The ATF has not commented on why the agency searched the store owned by David LaGuercia. The owner's customary 60-day time period to appeal the decision has already run out.

"It's been revoked," ATF spokeswoman Deb Seifert told The Journal News. "It's final at this point."

Seifart added that she could not go into further detail to describe why LaGeurcia's license was revoked.

LaGeurcia has yet to comment on losing his store's license, but at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting he said he was "absolutely appalled" when he found out a gun he sold to Nancy Lanza, the mother of the Newtown shooter, may have been used in the rampage.

"There is nothing more devastating than the loss of a child, and I am absolutely appalled that the product that was sold several years ago would be used in this type of crime," LaGeurcia said in the statement at the time. "Our hearts go out to the victims' families and, as a father of three, I know firsthand of a parent's loss and it's the worst nightmare.

"We are cooperating with law enforcement in their efforts to get to the bottom of this senseless tragedy," he added.

Shelley Clemens, LaGeurcia's wife, said Friday that her husband still had no idea why the ATF had revoked the store's firearms license. While the store no longer has the right to sell firearms, the shop is still open, and continues to sell ammunition firearms-related items, she added.

According to newly released warrants that include reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the morning of Dec. 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot his mother Nancy in the head as she lay in bed, packed four legally purchased firearms and drove a black Honda Civic to the Connecticut K-4 elementary school. Lanza opened fire in two classrooms around 9:30 a.m., fatally shooting 20 children and six adults with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, showering the rooms with 154-bullets in less than five minutes before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun. Police revealed the Bushmaster had a 30-round capacity magazine; 14 rounds were left in the magazine, with one bullet still in the chamber. 

Police now believe Lanza's mother enabled her son's fascination with guns by making "straw purchases" for him. The guns used in the shooting were legally purchased and registered to his mother. Authorities said Lanza was found dressed up in military clothing, including a bulletproof vest. He still had another three, 30-round magazines left for the Bushmaster rifle, as well as another loaded handgun on him. According to another warrant for the Honda Civic driven by Lanza, police found a fully-loaded 12-gauge shotgun in the car's glove compartment, along with 70 rounds of Winchester 12-gauge shotgun rounds. 

Since 1982, there have been "at least 61 mass murders carried out with firearms across the country" in 30 states, according to Mother Jones; of those, 15 occurred in 2012 alone, according to The Huffington Post.