By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
One of the quickest turnarounds in the effort to recognize firearms retailers and distributors as “essential businesses” during the Coronavirus panic came in Los Angeles County, where Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially ordered gun stores closed, but a day later reversed course.
According to published reports, Sheriff Villanueva changed his mind after “the county’s top lawyer put out a legal opinion that she believes gun stores are essential businesses and should remain open,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The mini-drama began Tuesday when the sheriff reportedly decided gun shops are not “essential businesses,” and ordered them to shut down. That changed late Tuesday evening following “an opinion from Los Angeles County counsel that gun stores could in fact be classified as essential businesses under the Governor’s executive order,” according to a National Rifle Association report.
Villanueva reportedly made his initial decision at least partly due to the number of inexperienced people seeking to buy firearms in reaction to the pandemic.
“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,” Villanueva reportedly said at the time, “from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”
Villanueva was quoted in an email document from a group called “Guns Down” that appears to discourage gun buying during the COVID-19 crisis by asserting, “Americans are responding to the coronavirus pandemic by stocking-up on deadly guns and ammunition, a trend that could increase suicides, and unintentional shootings as well as increase the risk of domestic violence becoming more lethal during this uncertain time. The weapons people are panic-buying today could also end up being used in households, schools, churches, bars, and on our streets in the future.”
The sheriff’s likeness appears with this message: “Buying guns is a bad idea. Particularly, you have a lot of people now that are at home — normally, they’re not. Cabin fever sets in, you’ve got a crowded environment, people at home — weapons are not a good mix.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sheriff Villanueva “blamed the confusion on unclear language in the state and county orders.” The newspaper also said “Villanueva didn’t explain the rationale for the about-face,” but indicated in an early Wednesday note he’d gotten a legal opinion from “the county’s top lawyer” that gun stores are “essential businesses.”
Perhaps coincidentally, Villanueva’s about-face came just hours after Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, revealed he was working on legal actions against several jurisdictions, including some in California, for ordering gun shops to close.
The COVID-19 virus, which is responsible for hundreds of deaths in this country, and thousands around the world. The pandemic appears to be spreading in New York and other areas, and businesses across the country considered non-essential have shut down.
These shutdowns exempt a variety of “essential businesses” and operations, including law enforcement, hospitals, other emergency services, the news media and, in Washington State under Gov. Jay Inslee’s “stay safe, stay home” order, marijuana shops.
