Pleasant Hill Should Revoke Home Gun Dealer’s Permit

In May, Pleasant Hill residents learned that the City of Pleasant Hill had approved
a home occupation business permit for “LNC Arms –Retail Sales of Firearms” on Scottsdale Rd. in the Tres Lagos North development. Over a dozen residents voiced their outrage at this action at the May 21st and June 18th City Council meetings, pointing out that this creates a public safety risk in a residential neighborhood. This is a zoning issue. Sales of firearms and ammunition belong in a commercial business zone with proper security and oversight -- neither of which will occur at this residence.

At the May 21st meeting, the City Council voted to agendize a study session on adopting an ordinance to ban home occupation gun dealers – but has yet to do so. Is this topic too hot to handle during an election? The Contra Costa Brady Campaign has requested that the study session be scheduled very soon and that it be widely publicized so that Pleasant Hill residents are aware it is
happening.

In the meantime, the Patch reported that residential burglaries are
up 40% in the last year. There have been two shootings in the last 12 months,
one resulting in death. To allow home sales of firearms and ammunition puts the neighborhood as well as the dealer at risk, especially if the house is broken into and the guns are stolen.

There has been much confusion about exactly what LNC Arms will be
doing. City officials insist there will be no guns coming to the house and that
all transactions would take place over the Internet. However, the application
says: “I will buy it from the vendor, listing it online, once the firearm
arrives, I will be shipping it to the buyer’s local FFL.” Clearly the owner
expects firearms (and possibly ammunition) to be delivered to his residence.

The application also says: I will not be a stocking dealer and doing retail, just mainly online…” What does “mainly online” mean? Where will he be selling the guns the rest of the time? The application also states the owner
“just needs a computer, internet and a cabinet to store the paperwork”. To be a Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealer you are required by state and federal law to have a secure means of storing the firearms. He will be having firearms in and out of his house and evidently no secure means of storing them. Although he says he will not be stockpiling guns and ammunition on site, no one will be checking to see if that is the case.

If there had been a public hearing, perhaps many of these questions
could have been answered satisfactorily. But neither the neighbors nor any
Pleasant Hill residents were notified, and so we are left to guess at how this
business will be conducted and to conclude this poses a serious public safety risk.

Even if it was clear what the owner meant in his application, the problem is there will be NO oversight by the City to confirm he is doing what he says he will be doing. According to the City’s permitting guidelines, a permit can be revoked if the City receives valid complaints -- which it has. For all of these reasons, we believe the City should revoke the permit given to LNC Arms.

Please e-mail (or send a letter) the City Council and request that the LNC Arms home occupation gun dealer permit be revoked: http://www.ci.pleasant-hill.ca.us/forms.aspx?FID=74