The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department visited every gun store in its jurisdiction to ensure they were closed after the governor shuttered all nonessential businesses.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered residents to stay at home to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus earlier this month. As part of that policy, all businesses deemed nonessential by the state were ordered to close, including gun stores.
According to a report from Fox LA, Sheriff Alex Villanueva vowed to check on each gun store individually to make sure they are abiding by the governor’s order, explaining, “We will be closing them, they are not an essential function.”
He continued, “I’m a supporter of the 2nd Amendment — I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners, and you have a lot more people at home, and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”
The Sheriff told me he is a gun owner himself, supports 2nd amendment, but believes too many first time buyers are panicking and bringing guns into homes where people are locked down, which he believes is recipe for disaster with potential accidental shootings. @FOXLA
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 24, 2020
Villanueva said he would hit gun store owners with scofflaw violations if they are found to be flouting the orders put in place by Newsom. Deputies will investigate each gun store “one by one” to ensure they are closed.
California is home to the fourth-largest coronavirus outbreak in the United States. As of Tuesday afternoon, the state had more than 2,200 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus and over 40 related deaths.
