The Last Gun Store in SF Is Closing

Manager Steven Alcairo says he won't comply with proposed laws
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 5, 2015 9:23 AM CDT
Updated Oct 10, 2015 12:30 PM CDT
The Last Gun Store in SF Is Closing
High Bridge Arms gun shop is shown in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco's last gun shop says the city has won the war after years of legislative battles, each one bringing new restrictions on how the shop does business. Around since the 1950s, High Bridge Arms will close its doors next month, reports KGO-TV. Manager Steven Alcairo says past regulations have forced him to remove ads from the store's windows, fill out "mountains of paperwork" for police and other agencies, and hand over footage from the store's 17 video cameras whenever police ask. Now, a proposed ordinance wants him to videotape each sale and give police weekly reports on ammunition sales, reports Fox News. "I'm not doing that to our customers. Enough is enough," Alcairo tells the AP. "Next year will probably be something else. Buying a gun is a constitutionally protected right. Our customers shouldn’t be treated like they're doing something wrong."

Alcairo says he sells thousands of guns each year, but customers stopped coming after the proposed laws were announced, believing they had already been put on the books, per the San Francisco Examiner. But "video evidence is a critical component in bringing lawbreakers to justice," counters a rep for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "If High Bridge Arms is so scared of implementing such a practice, my first question would be, 'What do you have to hide?'" Others disagree: "For years San Francisco politicians have inappropriately blamed licensed and inspected gun retailers for violence actually caused by gangs, drugs, and sanctuary city laws," says a lawyer. "The city has imposed a crushing burden of redundant and pointless regulatory red-tape on firearm retailers, all in an effort to put them out of business. Now they have gotten their wish." (More gun stores stories.)

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