According to Firearm Chronicles
After hours of pushback from residents, gun stores, Second Amendment organizations, and even the county attorney, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva reversed course early Wednesday morning and now says his office is suspending attempts to force firearm retailers to lock their doors.
Villaneuva announced the move on social media, saying it will be up to Gov. Gavin Newsom to determine what is, and isn’t, an essential business.
Villanueva claimed on Tuesday that while he was a Second Amendment supporter, the idea of all these new gun owners cooped up in their homes bothered him. Concerned about accidents involving firearms or a rise in homicide by these new gun owners, the sheriff said all gun stores must close.
One man’s opinion can’t supersede the Constitutional rights of 10-million people, and late Tuesday night gun owners and Second Amendment supporters got a boost from an unexpected source.
Los Angeles, the nation’s largest county with 10 million residents, enacted a stay-at-home order last week that required all nonessential businesses to close to slow the spread of the virus.
The county order — and an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom — did not specifically mention gun shops, prompting the Los Angeles County counsel’s office to issue a statement late Tuesday saying it has “opined that gun stores qualify as essential businesses.”