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Federal prosecutors have alleged that D'Andrea's firearms store, D'Andrea's Gun Case, illegally sold hundreds of guns to known gang leaders for 20 years, and that his store at one time was the second-largest source of all the "crime guns" recovered in Connecticut.
"Only 1.2 percent of all licensed gun dealers are responsible for 60 percent of crime guns in America," Brady Center spokesman Doug Pennington said. "We're hoping people see the nexus between weak gun laws and gun dealers like D'Andrea."
The report blames lobbying by the National Rifle Association and an underfunded federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for D'Andrea being able to remain open as long as he did.
The Brady Center said the NRA spent more than $62,000 in an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn Connecticut's assault weapons ban - during which D'Andrea testified - and that "the gun lobby helped gun dealers like D'Andrea stay in business, with the NRA vigorously lobbying to weaken federal gun laws that could shut down corrupt dealers."
The NRA said it was aware of the Brady Center's publication but did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The Brady Center and other gun control groups have been dealt serious blows to their cause over the past four years, most significantly in 2004 when the Brady Bill that banned assault weapons was allowed to expire.
D'Andrea was indicted on 12 federal gun charges in 2006, after the ATF found that he had misplaced hundreds of weapons during several years of audits. Other allegations were that D'Andrea falsified background checks, sold weapons to convicted felons, and even suggested ways for gangsters like Frank "The Terminator" Estrada to time buys so as to avoid the attention of authorities.
D'Andrea pleaded guilty to a single count of possessing an illegal semiautomatic, 12-guage "Street Sweeper" shotgun in February, and was sentenced Sept. 7 to 3½ years in prison. He must surrender to federal authorities Jan. 18, and pay a $75,000 fine.
D'Andrea's attorney, Alan Sobol, did not wish to address the Brady Center report because he had not read it, but said last Friday what he argued before U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton at the sentencing: that D'Andrea is a hard-working man who never intentionally sold weapons to criminals and drug dealers.
"My sense was that Frank is old-school, and he did not keep up with the changing and technical nature of gun laws," Sobol said.
Estrada has told federal authorities that he bought AK-47 and AR-15 rifles as well as various handguns to outfit his gang captains and lieutenants during the 1980s, and that at least two murders were carried out with those weapons. Estrada, 38, is serving 29 years in prison for a variety of crimes, including his running a large-scale drug ring based in the P.T. Barnum housing projects in Bridgeport.
D'Andrea moved his store from Stratford to Milford in 2005, while the ATF investigation was ongoing. Even after he was indicted, federal law didn't require D'Andrea to close his doors, but the state used a licensing issue to shut him down last year.
D'Andrea sold his store for $1.2 million late last year, and it has since been renamed
