North Bellmore man charged in gun-sales probe

A North Bellmore man was charged in a recent statewide gun-show investigation by Attorney General A.G. Schneiderman.

Sam Savino of North Bellmore was one of 10 people arrested for failing to conduct required background checks before selling firearms. Savino is the only defendant from Nassau County charged in “Operation Background Bust.”

The eight-month investigation was conducted across New York state at six gun shows, including one in Hauppauge in September. The 10 defendants were found guilty of violating the state’s background check necessary to sell firearms. Undercover officers began the investigation in March, posing as potential buyers of firearms at the gun shows across the state. Many of the undercover officers told vendors that they had an order of protection against them and would likely not pass a background check, but the guns were sold to the agents anyway.

People barred from purchasing firearms include those who:

•Have been convicted of a felony.

•Have adjudicated a “mental defective” or have been committed to a mental institution.

•Are unlawful users of or addicted to a controlled substance.

•Are living illegally or unlawfully in the U.S.

•Are subject to a court order that restrains them from harassing, stalking or threatening an “intimate partner” or a child of that partner.

•Have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

•Have been dishonorably discharged from the U.S. armed forces.

According to the law, gun-show vendors must ensure that a National Instant Criminal Background check is conducted before selling a weapon. The attorney general’s investigation proved that this is often not the case. Background check laws were put in place by New York in 2000 in an effort to curtail illegal firearm sales.

"The illegal sale of guns at gun shows endangers the public by giving felons, terrorists and the dangerously mentally ill an open and anonymous marketplace to buy guns without a background check,” Schneiderman said in a written statement. “Our investigators found a blatant disregard for the law where sellers made the conscious decision to sell deadly weapons to individuals who admitted they would not pass a background check."