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Originally Posted by dieseldog
Most of the Country was up-in-arms about the Supreme's decision regarding eminent domain last session. It was seen as allowing local governments to "reach" and "grab" beyond all reason for the benefit of private business development. This SF ordinance seems to me to be a sort of eminent domain grab as well. Sure, we all feel in the seat of our pants the prospective result for residents if they have to turn in guns; however, what about lawful businesses such as gun stores, gunsmiths, etc. who now are having their business stripped from them with no just cause. Policemen will have to leave town just to buy firearms, ammunition, etc. How utterly ignorant on so many levels. How utterly devastating to so many family-run businesses who have legally and safely plied their trade for decades and now have to close their shops. It's not possible for me to describe the utter dismay that H engenders in me. The fact is that H will not even result in a "zero-sum" game. It will destroy more than it will ever cure--all to salve some Haight-Ashbury hashheads. Fie on you, pox on your choice.
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LOL! I doubt that many "Haight-Ashbury hashheads" give a damn, really.
But your points are moot. The city had successfully driven away all of the visible gunstores long ago by far more nefarious means than a public referendum. The San Francisco Gun Exchange, for example, closed their doors in 2001 (think it was) after the city had kept the street right in front of the store dug into trenches for months on end and no end in sight. It was a supposedly citywide upgrade of the underground power and sewer lines that somehow never affected any other street but that one. Since the Gun Exchange had never had off street parking, prospective customers were forced to either pay the large parking fees in lots or park illegally to get to the store.
I was taken to that store by my father to be introduced around when I was eight years old. It was a family owned business which had been there like an institution since the 1920s. My father was in high school with one of the family and he dealt with them exclusivley until he died.
I drove over there one day and just made it before the place closed. The family was manning a table across the doors to see to customers who had items on order or had left items for service. I asked what was going on as I could see that the store was empty behind the table, and one of the people who I felt I'd known all of my life told me the story of how they'd finally given up. The city had pestered them with inspections and regulatory impositions for years, but keeping them from being able to serve their customers through this final cheap trick was more than they could bear, either morally or financially.
I guess they got a pretty good price for most of the fine things that used to decorate the place, and I know they'd owned the building and must have sold it.
I was never close to any of the younger members of that family but I had made a point to visit, and I'd done a lot of business with them over the years.
It was a very sad thing to see them closed but for me it was only one more reason to leave the bay area behind. Still, I'll be watching in the hope of seeing the NRA shove this one up the city of San Francisco's ass one more time!