Judge Denies Gun Dealer's Appeal

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

A judge denied a San Leandro gun store owner's appeal today to keep the federal government from revoking his license to sell firearms, effectively driving one of Northern California's biggest gun retailers out of business.

The case of Trader Sports has drawn attention from beyond the Bay Area because the East 14th Street store is one of the state's biggest gun dealers, selling more than 3,500 weapons a year. Store owner Tony Cucchiara argued that federal agents had overreached in revoking his license because of problems including his inability to account for more than 1,700 guns.

Cucchiara sued, claiming that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was illegally trying to intimidate gun buyers by driving him out of business for minor and inadvertent violation of gun laws. But at the end of a nearly two-hour hearing Thursday in a San Francisco courtroom, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker denied Cucchiara's request for an injunction to keep the license revocation from taking effect June 1.

"We're disappointed," said Cucchiara's attorney, Malcolm Segal. "I fear that the business will be forced to close."

Trader Sports has been in business for more than 35 years. Gun-control advocates have long pointed to it as an example of why firearms sales need to be more tightly regulated.

35 years in business and all of the sudden they are told by the government goodbye.Licensure means monopoly for the state.