A resident of Washington, D.C., Seth Horvitz, placed an order for a flat screen television but actually received a high-powered assault rifle instead. Horvitz ordered his flat screen television from Amazon.com and one of its third-party sellers. When the gun was delivered it was left in a box in the hallway of his apartment building.
It was reported that the address and name for Horvitz was printed on the shipping label attached to the box but the invoice with the product said that the gun was supposed to go to a gun retailer located in Pennsylvania. When Horvitz realized the mixup he called police, who arrived and confiscated the gun. Horvitz was told by officers that he could not return the gun because it is illegal to transport it via vehicle.
“[The police] were a little confused at first, they’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Horvitz said.
The manufacturer of the gun, Sig Sauer, offered the following description of it: “a potent AR-based rifle” that is the “choice when you require the power of a larger caliber carbine.”
The Huffington Post received a statement from Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which said: “We’ve seen in recent weeks the tremendous damage these guns can do. We have to be better than a nation where assault weapons are so prevalent and can so easily end up in dangerous hands. It’s deeply disturbing.”
