CHARLOTTE -- The owner of a Charlotte gun shop said he tries to keep his wares out of criminals' hands, but he's not surprised that Hyatt Coin and Gun ranks second on a national list of dealers whose firearms were traced to crimes.
Authorities have found that more than 2,000 guns used or suspected of use in crimes since 2006 were sold by Hyatt, according to a new Washington Post study. One of those guns was a revolver used by Demeatrius Montgomery to kill two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers in 2007.
Larry Hyatt says he's sorry to see his shop on the list but says it's a popular, legal business that does all required background checks and encourages responsible gun ownership.
"The reason we're getting publicity is our sales volume," said Hyatt, who took over the 51-year-old shop on Wilkinson Boulevard from his father and now runs it with his son.
He estimates the store sold more than 750,000 guns over the last five decades. He acknowledges some are likely to later be stolen or sold illegally to criminals, but says the sheer number of sales makes Hyatt rank high on the list.
Gun-control advocates say a small number of stores account for an outsized number of guns traced to crime, and that lax selling practices make it easy for criminals to buy guns at such stores.
"Eighty-nine percent of gun dealers have zero traces in a year," said Daniel Vice, an attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. His organization believes gun stores with high numbers of firearms traced back to them perform inadequate background checks or sell to people obviously intending to give the guns to someone else.
"Responsible gun dealers don't make those sales," Vice said. "Gun dealers that supply so many guns to criminals can wreak havoc on a community."
A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Hyatt hasn't had any serious problems in recent audits, and that its high sales volume is likely a major reason the store had a high number of guns later traced to crimes.
Everyone who buys guns at his store undergoes all government-required checks, Hyatt said. North Carolina requires that gun purchasers pass a background check and obtain a gun permit from their local sheriff's office.
The background check is supposed to screen outpeople including convicted felons and people under indictment or domestic violence court orders.
