Gun Company Got Warning, State Discloses
The Erquiaga Arms Co., which yielded 373 machine guns to a raiding party last week, was warned four months ago that it was operating without a state license. Atty. Gen. Thomas C. Lynch’s office disclosed Monday.
The arms company did not respond to the warning, the attorney general said.
Lynch said he learned Monday that the U.S. State Department had denied a gun export license requested by the firm.
For Foes of Castro
An Erquiaga spokesman had been quoted as saying the State Department approved of the manufacture of machine guns because they would be supplied to anti-Castro Cubans.
A raiding party of 30 federal, state and local officials confiscated the automatic weapons and 100,000 rounds of ammunition Friday night at the company, 15036 E. Proctor Ave., City of Industry.
Meanwhile, suggestions that the machine guns might be destined for such extremist “private armies” as the Rangers brought a complaint from the Ranger Battalion Assn. of World War II, a legitimate veterans organization. The association said it is against extremist movements and opposes the use of the name, Ranger, by any other group.
L 17, 1965