SF Bay Area - pls recommend a gun shop

[wildthing]

Bought 3 spoons at Reed’s because they are close.

I say get instruction first, then go to the range a few times to try out several handguns before deciding what feels right.

[aigel]

+1 on checking out Calguns for up to date information.

I think they are all closed. Saw some news of hold outs being closed down. They are considered non-essential in the order. I have mixed feelings about this. People like cantrdv55 should be able to arm themselves if they feel the need during a crisis, OTOH gun stores are usually crammed and buying a gun without getting close to one another and touching a lot of hardware and paperwork is going to be near impossible.

I am curious about the motivation!? I do not think it is likely that our current situation degrades to the point where you need a firearm. What is the situation that you are trying to prepare for? Do you own a business you are trying to protect while it is shut down?

Best,

George

[john70t]

It's a good season to go hiking.
Cool breezes makes for good weather.
Bring water and maps.

Someday perhaps the entire California Legislature might be brought up on charges of violating the U.S. Constitution.

[cantdrv55]

Originally Posted by aigel

+1 on checking out Calguns for up to date information.

I think they are all closed. Saw some news of hold outs being closed down. They are considered non-essential in the order. I have mixed feelings about this. People like cantrdv55 should be able to arm themselves if they feel the need during a crisis, OTOH gun stores are usually crammed and buying a gun without getting close to one another and touching a lot of hardware and paperwork is going to be near impossible.

I am curious about the motivation!? I do not think it is likely that our current situation degrades to the point where you need a firearm. What is the situation that you are trying to prepare for? Do you own a business you are trying to protect while it is shut down?

Best,

George

It’s for home protection primarily. Eventually, I am going to take the family on a multi-state vacation in our RV. We might dry camp in BLMs so better safe than sorry. In the short term though, I’m not so sure the country is going to come out of this in one piece. You know the Shiite has hit the fan when Vegas casinos close down.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

Reading is fundamental.

Many won't, but plenty will. It's usually those ignorant of the process and/or high-volume dealers that don't want to deal with returns from buyers trying to purchase firearms that are not CA-approved/legal.

Also, dealer purchase is just one option. Lots of private-party sales/sellers out there willing to ship to CA.

Wrong.

There are plenty of home-based FFL's in CA. I've dealt with (shipped to) several over the years.

I was a Home FFl dealer when I lived in San Bernardino county. It depended on the city and county...maybe the state, county and city govt have changed their policies? The trend over the years especially in CA is ever tighter restrictions with more and more compliance paperwork. IF a Dealer sells into CA they have to call the CA DOJ to get the super secret password which then gets whispered to the CA Dealer so he can pass it back on to the CA DOJ... Even CA C&R holder purchase of qualifying C&R guns have to be shipped to a CA FFL where they can just go in and pick them up (this sounds like a sales tax issue) . sound like a hassle it is..

In CA they passed a Saturday Night Special law ostensibly to keep poor quality guns from being sold. Every handgun gun now has to be submitted by the mfg to a Drop Test testing to be approved for sale in CA.. Thus the APPROVED LIST. If a mfg has discontinued a gun they are not going to submit it for testing and it does not get approval. Gun dealers can not own for sale in CA any gun that is not on the approved list..they can sell it out of state. If a gun is over 50 years old BY SERIAL NUMBER it can be sold without state approval by a Dealer. A Dealer CAN take in a gun that is not on the Approved list and sell it on consignment. Or a private party can sell it to another private party provided that they do the back ground checks. Federal law states that anything made before 1898 is an Antique and is exempt from all restrictions. it is virtually not even considered to be a gun. Modern replicas that fire fixed cartridges are not exempt.

Then to be a Dealer in CA you have to have a Resale #, A city Business License which needs law enforcement approval, a State Certificate of Eligibility every year, a State Certificate of Compliance? which defers cost of site inspection for compliance evey year. Then when you comply with all the State and Local laws the BATF will give you a FFL license. In many jurisdictions you have to have Store Front by city or county ordinace to qualify for a license. Here I imagine that a city or county might state that you have to have public point of entrance and egress along with the BATF requirement of telling them your hours of opeartion.. Also inventory storage is something that they like to monitor. Is it a hassle yes, is it designed to discourage people from the gun trade YOU BET. Did I forget the BATF has the right to inspect the licensed premise anytime they like...

Now you have to do a back ground check on Ammo??? CA even before I left ALLOWED only one hand gun purchase a month.

Now what have I missed, it has been quite a while since I checked on what is going on in CA. The receiving Dealer has to collect sale tax on out of state purchases... lots of times the seller has to collect local sales tax if it is going to a private party in another state. The same thing is happening with the collection of internet sales taxes

For instance if I purchase a gun that is less than 50 years old by Sn out of state I have to pay for shipping and it has to be sent to a local FFL Dealer. Who then charges a RECEIVING & Background Check fee of at least $50.00, I then have to pay the local sales tax on the purchase. Now some Auctioneers will only send to FFL Dealers and not C&R holders so that local sales tax can be collected Ever tightening of the screws..as the govt gets DESPERATE to collect every dime they can.

I have a friend who gave up his license years ago because the City where he was licensed was giving him too much grief..over compliance issues.

I have been dealing with these issues since 1979...and compliance issues since 85.

[vash]

Cool.

The shops near me are all closed.

Once the dust settles take the handgun safety course. I seem to remember the study guide online. The gun shop will give you a multiple choice test. Pass it. They will give you a card.

Now you can buy a firearm. Pick one, pay for it, then wait the 10 days, pick it up......

Then buy ammo and agonize about where to shoot. In my experience, our gun ranges are crowded and difficult to get into. The weekends are impossible. Range time is a problem.

[tabs]

Here is another one for ya...

Small shop owners can not compete on pricing with the big outlet stores like Cabelas etc...the big boys buy in enough of quantity where they get better pricing. They make deals directly with the mfgs which usually have a minimum purchase that includes slow moving a sundry merch..

The big guys like Cabelas, Bass Pro etc can technically be classified as distributorsand not retailers..as far as pricing goes. The small shop has to buy through a middle man Distributor which drives cost. That is why small shops have a tough go of it and usually do not survive.

There used to be a shop on Rosemead in Pasadena called Fowlers Sporting Center...Run by Mike Fowler and his Mom...her ex Sam Fowler owned the Stockade in Westminster and another shop in Orange.. specializing in collectibles...Anyway a couple of times a year Mike would make a deal with Browning, Colt and Winchester to get lots of product in where he would have blow out pricing sales...the line to get in would be stretched down the block. The used gun section was where he made good money... That is until one day in late 85 that the store blew up killing his mom and him along with their accountant and his daughter. I was on my way there when it happend..and was standing outside while it burned to the ground. Ironically the Trader Joes which was virtually next door burned down a couple of years later.

Going back in the day there was Pony Express ran by Ray Howser out on Ventura Blvd in the Valley, always had good collectibles saw John Milius out there one day. the afore mentioned Stockade..lots of good stuff at high retail pricing.. Martin Rettings ran by the sons Martin and Danny Retting on Washington in Culver City..still in biz...lots of collectible stuff that was pricy and they would not dicker... Red Star which eventually was across the street dealing in Soviet block stuff... I had a friend who has since passed that worked or Retting for about 20 years..forgot more about spoons than I will ever know... Back in the 60's there was Harry Sanford on Colorado Blvd called Colorado Arms...that specialized in military surplus...Then a place in Laguna Nigel called Saddleback Valley Guns..run by George Huneman..where I got some stunning deals over the years..He got a lot of stuff from the Sun City crowd of old folks.

Here in LV there is only one guy that gets good old stuff on a consistent basis..Spurlocks in Henderson...but a local Chiropractor gets first call as he buys about 40K a year from him...the rest mostly just sell new stuff. Local shows mainly sell modern black guns... Except the Beinfield. in January..which used to be at the Riv and now is at the Westgate.. the Big antique dealers and auctioneers all go to that show..where the attendees are well heeled....

The other big show in NV is the Safari Club Convention in Reno in January...there are so many private jets parked at the airport in Reno that there is no more room to park and you have to land at an airport 75 miles away and get bused into the convention in RENO.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by vash

Cool.

The shops near me are all closed.

Once the dust settles take the handgun safety course. I seem to remember the study guide online. The gun shop will give you a multiple choice test. Pass it. They will give you a card.

Now you can buy a firearm. Pick one, pay for it, then wait the 10 days, pick it up......

Then buy ammo and agonize about where to shoot. In my experience, our gun ranges are crowded and difficult to get into. The weekends are impossible. Range time is a problem.

The biggest gun range west of the Mississippi is the Clark County Firearms Range (which hosts Skeet and Trap Tournaments with 50 spaces for RV parking) at the top of Decatur Ave at the foot of the Big Sheep mountains. That was in the works for a dozen years and cost 60M...Most of the land in the LV valley is owned by the BLM, who every year auctions off parcels to be developed. The money realized from the auction is split 50/50 with the Fed govt the NV portion is supposed to be used for parks and other civic improvement. The NV portion had gotten to be over 200M..GW wanted to get his hands on all the money realized..guess who stopped that ...Harry Reid of course...anti gun Harry even passed legislation in Congress that donated the land valued at about 15M for the gun range...Surprise surprise surprise...

Anyway the newly built local homeowners opposed the gun range when they found out it was going to be nearby...They sued..and of course they lost... with Harry behind the range could it be any other way? The upshot is that about 4 miles away a the Allante Casino/Hotel was built (Gogar performed there)...hmm do ya think that it was partially built to house and entertain all the Sporing tournament shooters that come to town?

[tabs]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

It’s for home protection primarily. Eventually, I am going to take the family on a multi-state vacation in our RV. We might dry camp in BLMs so better safe than sorry. In the short term though, I’m not so sure the country is going to come out of this in one piece. You know the Shiite has hit the fan when Vegas casinos close down.

They shut the town down because they do not want all the infected and diseased Tourists from coming to town..and then taking it back home and spreading it around some more.

It was a no brainer to figure this town would get a good dose of it..and become a Ghost Town.

As of yesterday 190 people got it and 2 died in Clark County. The govenator quarantined the state, all non essential biz is closed for the duration. Since late January I have tried to be careful, always wiping my hands down with sanitizer.. even carrying around the wipettes I get at the door..

I even posted on another site what essentially has happened so far...the world wide death toll eventually could be as high as 150M to 200M people. Based up an extrapolation of how many died from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

My wife and I have never fired a gun but we’d like to buy one each for protection. Where’s a good place to buy guns, get licensed or whatever and get instruction? Thanks.

I’ve fired plenty of firearms and know enough to KEEP firing for practice and safety reasons. Unfortunately, all my local ranges are closed down. (But pot dispensaries were deemed “essential”)

Even before the COVID-19 crisis hit, my local gun store / FFL dealer was pretty busy. I hate to see how swamped they become once they are allowed to open again.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

It’s for home protection primarily. Eventually, I am going to take the family on a multi-state vacation in our RV. We might dry camp in BLMs so better safe than sorry. In the short term though, I’m not so sure the country is going to come out of this in one piece. You know the Shiite has hit the fan when Vegas casinos close down.

You always have to weight the risk of owning, handling and storing a gun against the risk of being a victim of a violent crime. This depends on your circumstances and your personal opinion.

For myself I have come to the conclusion that I do not need to carry at home or in public. But going dispersed camping? Different story. Also, I do want to be able to arm myself at home in case there is an issue, such as a manhunt in the neighborhood (yes, I have lived in LA )

We will come out of this crisis all right. It may be tough but I already see a lot of positives how people support and help each other. America is still the best place in the world to face a storm like this.

Cheers,

G

[cantdrv55]

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

OP:

You might poke around on Calguns.net as well. It's basically the Pelican Parts of CA gun stuff.

Great website. Thank you.

[bernardcoghlan]

If you’re new to guns, it’s a good idea to find a shop or range that offers beginner classes and helps with the licensing process. A lot of places will walk you through buying your first firearm and teach you the basics of safety and shooting, which makes the whole thing a lot less overwhelming.
If you’re ever in Minnesota, check out Burnsville MN conceal carry. They’ve got solid classes that cover everything you need to know about carrying and using a firearm responsibly.

[vash]

Rinker Arms in Santa Rosa

Hell. Sportsman’s warehouse in every city.

Guns , fishing and other stuff. Stores in vacavillle and livermore(?)

We don’t live in England dude. Guns stores are common.

[cantdrv55]

This is a four year old thread.

[vash]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

This is a four year old thread.

Yup. Realized it 2 seconds after I responded. Too far to walk back.

You ever buy anything?

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

This is a four year old thread.

That’s because the dredging operation is a thinly disguised advertising scheme. Check out all of the previous posts.

[jyl]

What was happening in 2020 that people thought they’d never be able to buy guns again?

[Ralph3.]

Covid

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by vash

Then buy ammo and agonize about where to shoot. In my experience, our gun ranges are crowded and difficult to get into. The weekends are impossible. Range time is a problem.

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

This is a four year old thread.

Make a day trip up here Chris, there is a place to shoot like 10 minutes from my house. I get up there from time to time and can hear the shots from my back patio all the time. Dog is even getting used to it....

We can go shoot for a bit and do lunch in Twain Harte or Sonora. Be great to see ya.