With 35 stores across the state, Turner’s Outdoorsman is the largest firearm retailer in California. It’s estimated that the chain sells about 1 in every 5 handguns that are purchased in the state, and given the size of its footprint, it shouldn’t come as a shock that when ATF traces are conducted on guns in California, those firearms were often originally sold at a Turner’s location.
The Trace recently claimed that the chain is “also connected to more crime guns than any other California dealer or chain — and that’s not only because Turner’s sells so many guns.” It’s piece on the chain started with a deceptively worded and carefully crafted narrative that suggests Turner’s is aiding and abetting California criminals.
Eight months before Cole Tomas Allen sprinted past a security checkpoint with his shotgun in an alleged attempt to kill President Donald J. Trump, he walked into Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrance, California, and purchased the weapon, a Mossberg pump-action 12-gauge.
If convicted, Allen would join a long list of criminals armed with guns from the Turner’s Outdoorsman chain. Between 2022 and 2024, California law enforcement traced nearly 8,000 crime guns — those used in a crime, suspected to have been used in a crime, or illegally possessed — back to Turner’s locations.
Allen wasn’t a prohibited person. He passed a NICS check, waiting the 10 days required under California law, and lawfully took possession of the shotgun (he had also purchased other firearms from other retailers besides Turner’s). There was no reason for Turner’s or any other retailer to turn Allen away, but The Trace’s lead gives the impression that Allen shouldn’t have been able to walk out of Turner’s with a 12-gauge but did so anyway.
The Trace argues that “Turner’s stores account for a fifth of guns sold in California, but make up a quarter of all crime guns,” and that “Guns it sold showed up at crime scenes at a rate 35 percent higher than other dealers in the state.”
Is that equally true of each of the 35 stores owned by the chain? I doubt it. The Trace even acknowledges “there are several potential reasons some dealers are tied to high numbers of crime guns.
Factors such as store location, lax sales practices, the types of guns sold, and low prices can contribute to higher numbers of traces, according to academics and former law enforcement.
The Trace then goes on to quote Brady employee Steve Lindley, who told the pro-gun-control outlet that “Authorities should give Turner’s stores “some extra love and attention when it comes to inspections, because there’s something going on there different than other dealers.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn received that smoke signal loud and clear, and on Thursday she was joined by Brady in demanding the Los Angeles County District Attorney investigate the chain.
In a letter to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, Hahn asked for an official probe into the practices and sales at Turner’s Outdoorsman’s eight county locations, including the store in Torrance, on Hawthorne Boulevard, where the retailer sold a Mossberg, pump-action 12-gauge shotgun to the Torrance resident, who stormed a Washington, D.C., hotel hosting the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on April 25.
In her letter, Hahn parroted The Trace’s reporting, as did Brady in its own missive to Hochman.
In the letter, the Brady organization said being tough on crime also means investigating “negligent or illegal actions by the gun industry itself.”
About 22.48% of guns recovered from crimes statewide were traced to a California dealer, the letter said. “The reality is that Turner’s has been linked to thousands of firearms being recovered in disproportionately Black and Brown communities since the California Department of Justice began collecting this data,” the Brady letter stated.
“The oversight response to this pattern has been wholly inadequate,” the letter stated.
The group said it stands with Hahn and “implores your office to investigate Turner’s Outdoorsman by using the statutory authority to inspect gun dealers.”
Hahn also called on the mayor of Torrance, Calfornia to adopt the regulations and restrictions on gun shops that L.A. County put in place a few years ago, which include “buffer zones” between licensed FFLs and areas deemed “sensitive places” by county supervisors, as well as a host of costly security upgrades and record-keeping requirements.
For now, anyway, Hochman seems noncommittal to the demands. His statement to the LA Daily News pointed out that the ATF has primary jurisdiction over federally licensed firearm dealers,”, but says his office will partner with any federal or state agency to ensure compliance with “California’s strict gun laws.”
Hochman also took a swipe at Haun and her fellow supervisors in the statement, telling the paper, he hopes “the County’s Board of Supervisors will ensure the District Attorney’s Office and its investigators have the necessary resources needed to conduct these important investigations, especially given the board’s recent efforts over the past year to cut the DA’s budget.”
Look for Brady to start lobbying California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Turner’s in the coming days, in addition to trying to apply more public pressure on Hochman. The gun control lobby has Turner’s Outdoorsman in its crosshairs, and they’re not done taking cheap shots at the chain as part of their broader assault on the lawful commerce in arms and gun ownership in general.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Read the full article here
