Local gun dealer’s deadline nears
The attorney for a popular gun dealership that has been ordered to surrender its sales license said Wednesday that a decision will be made today on whether to continue a legal fight to keep the store open.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker last week refused to overturn a federal government-imposed closing date for Trader Sports Inc., which was found to have repeatedly violated federal gun- sales laws. He gave CEO Anthony Cucchiara until Friday to either surrender his sales license or seek a stay with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
The order essentially forces the closure of Trader Sports, one of the largest firearms dealers in Northern California, said Malcolm Segal, the Sacramento-based attorney for the company.
“I would say that by (today) sometime, we will know,” Segal said. “It doesn’t take much to file an appeal.”
Segal said Cucchiara has been negotiating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for a license revocation extension. The ATF had ordered Cucchiara to surrender his firearms license by today.
Segal said an extension is needed to allow the store’s estimated 20 workers to find new jobs.
“The most important thing is making sure his long-term employees are taken care of,” Segal said. “Some of these people have been with him for 20 years. The judge recognized that in court when he (addressed) the hardship that will flow from the loss of his license.”
who has owned the store located at 685 E. 14th St. since 1958, was not available for comment, but Segal said his client has been emotionally overwhelmed by the ordeal.
“It’s very, very stressful, after owning this business all these years and to suddenly lose your license, particularly under the circumstances with some of these people relying on him,” Segal said.
The ATF issued its notice of revocation on July 29, 2004, after two inspections by federal investigators found that Cucchiara failed to keep and properly maintain records of the acquisition and disposition of all firearms as required under federal law.
During the inspections, the ATF found that 337 guns sold at Trader Sports had been traced to crimes between 1988 and 1996. Of those 337 firearms, the ATF found that 181 “had a short time to crime,” meaning they had recently been sold before being found at crime scenes by police.
Trader Sports, which was once called one of the most “irresponsible” gun dealers in the state by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also was found to be one of the most notorious gun dealers in the nation in a study by the Justice Department.
The report, released last month, identified the nation’s five leading sellers of guns that had been traced to crimes during 2005. Trader Sports was second on the list, with 447.
Each of the five dealerships had an average of one gun traced to a crime each day, the report said.
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