Huffington Post
The only gun store in San Francisco is shuttering for good, saying it
can no longer operate in the city's political climate of increased gun
control regulations and vocal opposition to its business.
"It's with tremendous sadness and regret that I have to announce we
are closing our shop," High Bridge Arms manager Steve Alcairo announced
in a Facebook post on Sept. 11. "It has been a long and difficult ride,
but a great pleasure to be your last San Francisco gun shop."
Alcairo said the breaking point came this summer when a local
politician proposed a law that would require High Bridge Arms to video
record every gun sale and submit a weekly report of ammunition sales to
the police. If passed, the law would join several local gun control
ordinances on the books in a city still scarred by the 1993 murder of
eight in a downtown high-rise and the 1978 assassination of Mayor George
Moscone and gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
"I'm not doing that to our customers. Enough is enough," Alcairo
said. "Buying a gun is a constitutionally protected right. Our customers
shouldn't be treated like they're doing something wrong."
Now that Mr. Alcairo has escaped San Francisco, I hope he sets up shop somewhere in the U.S.
ReplyDelete"The store's summer slump comes amid an overall gun sales surge in the state, according to California Department of Justice statistics.
ReplyDeleteThe California DOJ reported 931,000 guns sold last year— three times the number sold in 2004 and the second highest annual number since the department began keeping sales records in 1991."
So residents will merely have to drive a bit farther to contribute to the growing market in firearms.
Good riddance? So that was the plan all along?
ReplyDeleteThe truth comes out.
No, I don't know if that was the plan all along. How would I?
DeleteThe thing I noticed is the supposed straws that broke the camel's back didn't seem all that onerous to me. Maybe his business was just goin down the drain and he decided to close up and blame it on the
gun control atmosphere, like a true victim.
DeleteMikeB: "The thing I noticed is the supposed straws that broke the camel's back didn't seem all that onerous to me."
DeleteThat's why the saying calls it a "straw". It is supposed to represent a pile on of many many little things. Eventually the camel collapses, even though you only added one more piece of straw.