Stores Turn Away Buyers After Ruling
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 30, 2008
D.C. resident Anthony Mason walked into Atlantic Guns in Silver Spring on Friday afternoon and asked a question the staff had heard all day: "How can I buy a small handgun?"
"With the overturn of the gun ban," the retired Metrobus driver began to explain to the sales associate behind the counter.
"We're telling everyone to wait 30 days," said Atlantic manager Dale Metta, something he's repeated dozens of times in the past few days. "We can't do anything until the D.C. government says, 'These are the rules.' "
Gun shops in suburban Maryland and Virginia felt an immediate impact from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that the District's handgun ban is unconstitutional. City leaders said it would take about three weeks to iron out the details: Which kinds of guns will be legal, and how will the registration process work?
But with the court clearing the way for D.C. residents to legally arm themselves, many wasted no time.
Mason and about 50 other people called or came into the Atlantic as of Friday after the ruling. The well-stocked gun store next to a tattoo and body-piercing shop is about a half-mile from the District border, making it one of the gun shops closest to the city and among the busiest after the ruling. It's been in the same brick, one-story building since 1955.
"We've had a lot of people inquiring," Metta said. "What's happening now is a huge history maker."
He said his best-selling handguns are Glocks, Berettas and Rugers, which cost $350 to $700. People usually say they want them for self-defense, or sometimes as collector's items, he said.
Mason, 53, who lives in the Brookland area, was looking to buy a gun for his wife, who works at a hair salon that was recently burglarized.
"I would feel more comfortable knowing she can protect herself if I'm not there," Mason said.
Having a gun around his house offers him a measure of security, he said.
"If people looking for trouble know you have protection, they'll usually move on," he said.
Dozens of gun stores are close to the District in Maryland and Virginia, as well as several ranges and training facilities.
Atlantic has another store in Rockville, where owner Stephen Schneider said he's not expecting a windfall once D.C. residents can legally buy handguns.
"It depends on how difficult the District government will make it for people to own handguns," he said. "If they set the bar 10 feet high and no one can jump through it, what's the point in trying to get one?"
His father, George Schneider, opened Atlantic Guns in 1950 on 14th Street NW in the District and relocated several years later. Stephen Schneider said he has no designs to reopen a store in the city, because he's not sure it would be profitable. He said it depends on the red tape involved. He has other concerns, too, including crime.
"At present, we don't plan on it," he said.
Dick Gilbert, owner of Gilbert Indoor Range in Rockville, said he does not intend to open a range in the District. At what is billed as the largest indoor range on the East Coast, Gilbert said he already has many clients who live and work in the District, including law enforcement officers.
"We focus our energies on training and safety," he said.
West of the District in Chantilly, Deborah Curtis, co-owner and general manager of Blue Ridge Arsenal, said her store is turning away D.C. residents who want to buy handguns.
"We got a call from someone who said they wanted to come out and buy a gun," Curtis said. "We said no. They can't buy here and then take it back across state lines."
She said her training classes might become more popular as more people want to buy guns.
"How are you going to learn to use it?" Curtis said. "What are you going to do if you have a gun and nowhere to shoot it?"
Her $125 course offers classroom training and an hour on the range. Blue Ridge provides eight kinds of handguns for students to try, from .22 caliber to .45 caliber.
She said a Glock is the most popular gun she sells to people making their first firearm purchase, because it's durable and easy to use. It costs $400 to $700.
"It's an indestructible piece of equipment," she said. "It's not real sensitive; it's more like a workhorse, like a Ford truck. It's one of those kind you can beat up and not worry about it."
Curtis said she's glad that the District's gun ban was overturned. She said the city was "trying to legislate morality."
But she said she sympathizes with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) because there is so much gun violence in the city. About 80 percent of the District's homicide victims are killed by gunfire.
"I understand what he's trying to do," she said. "He's trying to save his city."
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