UPDATE: San Francisco police officials will allow the city’s only gun store to resume business following a hearing today, according to SFGate.
According to the story, most of the 14 people who spoke at the hearing supported the gun store.
Earlier, antigun advocates had vowed to attend a hearing today to ask city authorities to deny reinstating a permit for High Bridge Arms, which has operated on Mission Street for five decades, CBS 5 reported. Store manager Steven Alcairo is asking police to reinstate a use permit that lapsed in January when the building owner had been planning to convert it into office space.
Owner Andy Takahashi told ABC 7 that he is trying to set up a wholesale gun operation and needs to re-open the gun shop to set up the operation in the back of the store.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the case, which has been going on since May, has drawn the attention of the National Rifle Association.
Three neighborhood groups asked the city in May to turn down the permit for the shop. Now, the shop is at the center of a debate on what is best for the Mission District. Neighborhood advocates want something like a restaurant, bar or dry cleaner. Alcairo said the store serves a community of law-abiding citizens who don’t want to leave the city to purchase a gun.
Police permit officers can approve the store’s request to sell guns again, deny it or send it to Chief George Gascon for review. Gascon could then send it to the Board of Supervisors.
According to Mission Local the hearing will be held at 1 p.m. today at the San Francisco Police Department Permit Station on 850 Bryant St.
