Local Gun Store Voluntarily Closes

On Thursday, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he is closing gun stores in unincorporated areas of the county and the 42 cities where it provides law enforcement, and proclaimed Pasadena would soon be following suit.

“We’re going to shut down gun sales and ammunition sales outside of law enforcement and private security organizations,” Villanueva said. “The department will defer to individual chiefs of police to decide to close gun stores in the 45 cities in Los Angeles that have their own law enforcement agencies.”

“The city of LA. for example, they have banned all gun shops, they closed them throughout the duration of this pandemic, and the city of Pasadena is going to follow our standard.”

However, that’s not correct.

No gun stores are currently operating in Pasadena, according to Pasadena Police Chief John Perez.

The city’s lone gun store Turner’s Outdoorsman closed its doors voluntarily this week after a meeting with Perez.

“It was completely voluntary,” Perez said. “It was a mutual decision.”

On Tuesday, Pasadena Police Chief John Perez told Pasadena Now that he was monitoring the situation at Turner’s Outdoorsman after reports began circulating that the store had not closed despite an orders by local officials closing all non-essential businesses.

Gun stores were not listed as an essential business in the city’s order.

That same day Villanueva said he would be closing gun stores in his jurisdiction, but suspended those efforts following the county counsel’s office declaring gun stores essential businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Villanueva expressed concern about first-time gun owners in isolation with others during the shelter-in-place order.

“What we’re trying to discourage is panic gun-buying,” Villanueva said. “You have now a bunch of people who are normally not all crammed into a house confined together, and at some point in time when tempers start flaring, people that are unfamiliar with a new handgun — a new shiny toy — we’re going to expect to see an increase in domestic violence, with tragic results.”

So far Gov. Newsom has not clarified his order regarding gun stores.