ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Three men who work at a suburban gun shop were charged Tuesday with selling more than 100 rifles classified as illegal assault weapons under state law.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Police Superintendent George Beach said the charges follow an investigation of sales at Jackson Guns and Ammo in Henrietta, a federally licensed firearms dealer. Criminal complaints list dozens of specific models sold in 2013.
Authorities said the shop was owned and operated by 40-year-old Kordell Jackson, of West Henrietta. He and two employees face charges including criminal sales of a firearm. Messages left for Jackson were not immediately returned.
They were scheduled for arraignment Tuesday evening in Henrietta Town Court.
In 2013, New York lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlawed the sale of popular semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines and any single military-style feature. The law also banned magazines with a capacity of more than 10 bullets. Its passage followed the mass killing of 20 schoolchildren and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, by a lone gunman a month earlier.
The law brought thousands of gun-rights advocates to protests in Albany.
“New York has enacted some of the toughest, most sensible gun safety laws in the country, and with today’s charges, we are sending a message that these laws will be vigorously enforced,” Schneiderman said.
Authorities said the investigation began in 2014 after the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found irregularities in the shop’s records and notified state police. Over the next two years, troopers said they contacted the buyers of the assault rifles sold illegally and recovered most of them.
In January 2015, Jackson told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that his shop was closing because the new law made it too difficult to stay in business. He said he was planning to relocate to North Carolina.
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