Grant Boys Plans to Quit Selling Semiautomatic Assault Weapons

The head of one of the largest gun stores in Orange County said Friday he will stop selling such military assault weapons as the AK-47 rifle, the type used to kill five grade-school pupils in Stockton.

Randy Garell, president of the Grant Boys store in Costa Mesa, said the retail gun dealers must “wake up and face facts.”

“The handwriting is on the wall that these types of weapons with massive firepower have little true purpose,” said Garell, who also sells camping and outdoor gear. “I believe they are going to be banned eventually.”

Garell, in a move that he expects will be criticized by other weapons dealers and owners, said he will cease selling all semiautomatic assault weapons at his Newport Boulevard store after his current inventory is exhausted. He added that he plans to contact local law enforcement agencies about purchasing the assault firearms he now has in stock.

Garell said he was “greatly disturbed” by the killings Tuesday in Stockton by an unemployed drifter armed with a Soviet-designed AK-47 rifle and a handgun. He said his decision to discontinue sales was prompted by statements from Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and others calling for a statewide ban on several assault weapons.

Those assault weapons include the Israeli Uzi and the U.S.-made AR-15, a semiautomatic version of the M-16 military weapon.

“Listening to Gates--a pretty conservative, pro-gun guy--you realize that these weapons don’t belong in certain hands,” said Garell, whose company has been in business 40 years. “And to say that (some) guns sold at legitimate stores don’t find their way into the wrong hands is wishful thinking.”

But Bob Kahn, owner of B & B Sales, one of Southern California’s biggest gun retailers, said a ban on sales of semiautomatic rifles would do nothing “but improve the odds for criminals.” Kahn, who last year sold more than 40,000 weapons through his North Hollywood and Westminster stores, said the problem is the court system, which allows “convicted criminals back on the street” too quickly.

Kahn said the bulk of individuals buying assault weapons are military veterans who like to have the weapons for reasons of nostalgia, or recreational gun owners who like going to the desert to “shoot at cans.”

Some even buy them for personal protection, said Kahn, though he conceded a handgun is a better form of defense at close range because it is easier for the average person to aim and fire.

Surge in Sales Expected

Until Tuesday’s shootings, Kahn said, the AK-47 was “losing its appeal . . . but now there will probably be a surge in sales again.” He explained that some people who had not been aware that assault weapons were readily available and relatively inexpensive likely will be in the market for them now.

Under California law, most assault rifles, unlike handguns, can be purchased over the counter with no waiting period. A handgun purchase involves a state-mandated background check that usually takes 2 weeks.

If a background check was required for assault weapons, Garell said, the Stockton gunman might not have been able to buy the AK-47 he used. Patrick Edward Purdy, a high school dropout, had a long history of arrests on a variety of misdemeanor charges.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who favors a complete ban on the sale of assault weapons, said the Legislature “at the very least” should require a background check before one of the high-powered rifles can be sold.

“I can’t see any constructive reason why anyone should own one of those,” Bergeson said. “They are simply used to carry out warfare on private citizens.”

Ban Sought

In the wake of the Stockton killings, several California lawmakers, including state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), have said they plan to introduce legislation to ban the sale of assault weapons.

But Fred Romero, Southern California field representative for the National Rifle Assn., said talk of adopting new laws is “simply a knee-jerk reaction.”

“In the end, the average citizen will lose,” Romero said in a telephone interview from his Simi Valley home. “What you’ll be doing is disarming the average man and woman, making them more vulnerable to the bad guys, who will have no problem obtaining those weapons.”

Though opposed to a strict ban on sales, Romero said his organization would favor creation of a central data bank to which gun dealers could have access by computer to check backgrounds of assault weapon buyers.

The semiautomatic weapon used by Purdy is one of more than 80,000 AK-47s imported into the United States from China during the past 3 years. Purdy purchased his weapon, which has a magazine that can hold as many as 75 bullets, in Oregon.

A Chinese AK-47 can be purchased for less than $300, while a fancier Czechoslovakian version generally sells for twice that.

“There’s no doubt that the price of the AK-47 has much to do with its popularity,” said Charles Yoon, owner of Central Sporting Goods in downtown Santa Ana. Yoon said he sold about 10 of the Chinese models last year but added: “It’s not all that popular. Most people want handguns.”

STATE’S RESTRICTIONS ON GUN PURCHASES

Cannot be:

a convicted felon

addicted to drugs

a mental patient or on leave from a mental institution

adjudicated by a court to be a danger to others

found not guilty by reason of insanity for any crime

found incompetent to stand trial

Buyers of handguns must wait 15 days while their backgrounds are checked. There is no waiting period for purchases of rifles and shotguns.