Customers are buying up High Bridge Arms’ remaining stock after a city supervisor called for video recording of all gun and ammunition sales

The gun racks at San Francisco’s only gun store, High Bridge Arms, are almost empty, but for the first time in 27 years, the manager won’t be restocking them.

Steven Alcairo, High Bridge Arms general manager, says San Francisco’s overly strict gun regulations have become too onerous on his business over the years and that a new proposal to videotape all gun sales is the last straw for him.

“I won’t put my customers through that … It’s an invasion of their privacy,” Alcairo said.

San Francisco supervisor for district 2 Mark Farrell is proposing gun reform regulations that would require the video recording of all gun and ammunition sales in San Francisco. Under the new law, Alcairo would have to set up a video surveillance system that would be approved by the San Francisco police department (SFPD). He would have to keep the video footage at the store for at least one year and provide it to local, state, and federal law enforcement if served with a warrant. The new regulations would also require gun store owners to regularly send ammunition sales data to the SFPD.

The proposed regulations will go before the full San Francisco board of supervisors next week, but Alcairo is operating as if the new regulations will pass and he plans on closing down San Francisco’s last gun shop on 31 October. He says that the increasing pressures on the business and the amount of paperwork required to keep the shop open and operating are already too much.

Longtime gun seller Guy Markell, whose parents owned Markell’s gun shop on Judah Street in San Francisco from 1952 to 1989, says he is not surprised that there won’t be any more gun shops left in the city soon.

Markell, 71, says that in 1989 he moved his gun store from San Francisco to Santa Rosa because people who didn’t want gun shops in San Francisco would send death threats to the store and break the windows.

“I could see this coming, that San Francisco eventually would be gun free … but it’s not for the best,” said Markell.

“We followed the gun regulations then. I actually wrote the gun regulation to register ammunition,” Markell said, who was the San Francisco fire marshal from 1970 to 1989. But he doesn’t support the new proposed regulations, and warns that with every new regulation, San Francisco officials are making it more difficult for responsible gun shops to ever come back to the city.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steven Alcairo says the video recording regulation is an invasion of privacy. Photograph: David Zlutnick/The Guardian

California currently requires dealers to comply with a wide range of gun laws including being licensed, waiting 10 days to transfer a firearm to someone who has applied to purchase the gun, running background checks on all prospective firearm purchasers, and having fortified premises. On top of state laws, San Francisco requires gun dealers to carry liability insurance, report inventory details, and keep records of ammunition sales. Alcairo says he’s had to spend $12,000 in the last four years on upgrading the store’s gates, windows and other parts of the building.

According to the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s rankings, California ranks first in the US for implementing strong gun laws. In the Law Center’s state scorecards, California received an A- rating for its gun policies, Nevada and Arizona received F grades, and Oregon received a D+ grade.

Alcairo says although High Bridge Arms is still profitable, he sees the proposed regulations as infringing on the constitutional rights of his customers to own a gun and he also wants to protect his customers’ right to privacy.

“I have a problem with anyone who wants to keep amending the constitution, and not just the second amendment, but all of them,” said Alcairo.

He says he wants to see San Francisco officials defend the rights of gun owners, as they have defended the rights of gay couples who want to marry, even if the fight is unpopular in other parts of the country.

Farrell says that his proposed legislation doesn’t infringe on constitutional rights and that the new laws would make San Francisco citizens safer.

“It’s time that we have an honest discussion with those who believe that the right to bear arms is an inalienable right no matter what happens in society,” said Farrell, who’s had four public safety town hall meetings in his district this year. “Crime is increasing in San Francisco and I’ve heard the anxiety citizens have about their safety.”

Markell says this is “feelgood legislation” and that the city needs to enforce the state and local gun laws that already exist.

He says crime hasn’t increased by much in San Francisco, especially considering the city’s population of about 850,000. According to SFPD’s crime reports, incidents in which police arrested someone over a gun or firearm-related crime have increased slightly to about 600 this year from 1 January to 6 October. There were 541 gun-related arrests during the same period in 2014.

“[Video] recording of sales is ridiculous, it’s crazy. I don’t see this helping to solve crimes,” said Markell.

Alcairo says since he announced on Facebook on 11 September that he and owner Andy Takahashi will be closing the gun store, customers have been sharing their memories with him and his staff through social media and coming in to purchase souvenir T-shirts and buy up the remaining inventory of guns and rifles.

Gun control advocates hail 'significant' victory in Wisconsin gun shop case Read more

“Some have come in just to shake our hands and say thank you for always treating them with respect,” said Alcairo, whose passion for guns started at San Francisco’s Woodrow Wilson high school, now called Phillip & Sala Burton academic high school. He says the school had a gun range and allowed students to take firearm safety classes.

But in the midst of increasing gun violence, especially following the 2 October shooting at Umpqua community college in Roseburg, Oregon, which left 10 dead and 7 others injured, Alcairo is not getting much sympathy from legislators.

“High Bridge Arms is selling 1,000 guns a year in our city … They are just putting more guns on the streets,” said Farrell.

Farrell says that if Congress continues to hold out on seriously addressing gun violence and reforming federal gun control laws, then “local jurisdictions like San Francisco can and should take it upon themselves to enact tough policies”.

Allison Anderman, staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, says San Francisco is not an outlier in wanting store owners to videotape gun sales and that the Law Center tracks eight California cities and some counties that have the videotaping laws in place.

“The videotaping of sales is an important tool to help police solve gun-related crimes,” said Anderman.

Farrell says that other Bay Area cities, such as Campbell, and a few cities across the country, including Chicago, are already videotaping sales of guns.

“Over the last few years there has been talk about additional gun stores opening up in San Francisco,” Farrell said.

Farrell says he doesn’t know of any new gun shops opening in San Francisco yet.

“The city makes it so difficult to get a permit for a gun shop that I don’t think we will see any gun shops open up soon,” said Markell.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Customers have been buying up remaining merchandise at High Bridge Arms. Photograph: David Zlutnick/The Guardian

Alcairo leaves behind hundreds of loyal customers and gun enthusiasts, including some who have been buying guns at the store since it opened in 1988. “This is a San Francisco icon … I feel like it is a staple in this area,” said 35-year-old Marvin Thomas, a resident of San Francisco and longtime customer of High Bridge Arms. Thomas says he will continue to buy guns but will now have to go to Daly City or Pacific, two nearby cities.

According to Alcairo and Merkall, black market guns are a bigger problem than the licensed gun shops.

Alcairo reasoned that if more responsible gun owners carried their guns with them, there would be less crime because criminals would know that there are people out in the city who can defend themselves and others. He says that he understands local officials have good intentions but they are fighting the wrong fight.



“If I am in a city where I know they are issuing concealed carry permits to its citizens – crime would plummet,” Alcairo said.

It’s a controversial point, one at which Anderman balks. She says that the states with the strongest gun laws have some of the lowest gun death rates in the country.

“Not all gun dealers are reputable. If High Bridge Arms is, that’s good … Dealers who don’t want to follow the law want to open in areas that are unregulated,” said Anderman.

Alcairo is not sure what will be next for him, but he is not leaving San Francisco. He won’t say if he will start his own gun business in a nearby city or walk away for good. “For now, I am trying to serve all of our customers before we close our doors.”