HUNTINGTON BEACH — There are two decisions about the future of gun rights in California that the employees at Rifle Supply are closely watching these days.

Like many firearms enthusiasts, they anticipate the imminent end of California’s ban on “large-capacity magazines” capable of holding more than 10 rounds, a potential boon to their business. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego overturned the law on Friday, with a brief stay to give the state a chance to appeal.

Weeks before the ruling, Rifle Supply, a gun manufacturer and retailer, began thinning out the inventory stocked in its suburban Orange County store, which is already decorated with witch hats and cobwebs for Halloween. A rifle magazine engraved with a sanctified image of Benitez, who has also tossed several other California gun regulations for violating the constitutional right to bear arms, is among its top sellers.

Plastic bins of standard 30-round magazines, not yet pinned to make them California-legal, are piled in the back, ready to be moved to the sales floor as soon as the judge’s decision takes effect.

“People will go ridiculous,” Raul Rodriguez, the company’s marketing manager, said on a recent morning. “I guarantee you we’d sell all of this out in a day.”

Meanwhile, a new state tax on firearms and ammunition looms in July, if it survives a near-certain legal challenge. Gov. Gavin Newsom — the architect of California’s large-capacity magazine ban and a vocal critic of Benitez, whom he has derided as “a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby” — signed the bill on Tuesday, creating an 11% excise tax, paid by dealers and manufacturers, to fund gun violence prevention programs.

Gunsmith Jonathan Brooks works on assembling a rifle at Rifle Supply in Huntington Beach on Sept. 21, 2023. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

It’s not a death knell for Rifle Supply. Though that 11% is more than the typical profit margin for gun and ammunition sales, owner John Koukios said he would pass on the cost to customers, as much as he can.

But it’s another burden, in a long line of California laws and regulations and restrictions and paperwork — so much paperwork — that makes many people in what remains of the state’s firearms industry wonder whether those in charge are simply looking for a way to push them out.

“Recently, I’ll be honest with you, we felt like this business in California has an expiration date,” said Koukios, sitting in his sunny second-floor office, where antique rifles and shotguns leaned against the wall in one corner.

“Every time they change a law and take something away, it takes another chunk out,” he said. “At what point does it get whittled down so far that I can’t employ all of my employees anymore, that I can’t actually make enough money to operate a functional business?”

‘You can’t run a business like that’

To be a gunmaker in California is to whipsaw between hope and frustration, with the constantly changing contours of America’s gun control battles.

Lately, there’s the promise of a federal judiciary, empowered by a historic Supreme Court ruling last year, that seems determined to dismantle California’s strict firearms laws. And then there’s the uncertainty that comes with state leaders still looking for ways to counteract that momentum, including by passing dozens of new gun control measures.

“When you’re selling a product that’s…a purveyor of death for our kids, how about a little humility and grace and accountability?” Newsom said at a press conference Tuesday to promote the gun and ammunition tax, which was among 23 bills related to firearms that he signed. “The carnage is too much. We just can’t normalize it. We can’t accept it. So this is a small price to pay.”

Operating in such a challenging political and business climate, the gun manufacturing footprint in California is modest, even as sales remain robust. The FBI has already completed nearly 1 million background checks for prospective buyers in the state this year through the end of August.

About six dozen California-based companies reported commercial production to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2021, the most recent year for which data is publicly available. They collectively made 82,532 firearms, fewer than 23 other states and comprising less than 1% of the national output.

More than three-quarters of California’s production was from three companies: Senga Engineering in Santa Ana, FMK Firearms in Placentia and Phoenix Arms in Ontario, all of which did not respond to interview requests or declined to comment. Rifle Supply reported making 600 guns in 2021.

“We felt like this business in California has an expiration date. Every time they change a law and take something away, it takes another chunk out.”
— John Koukios, owner of Rifle Supply

California gunmakers note that not only is it more expensive to manufacture here — labor, materials, insurance and taxes all generally cost more — but the state also has design restrictions that don’t exist in most of the country. The popular AR-15 model rifle cannot be sold in California, for example, because it is classified as an assault weapon. That narrows the market for weapons made in California, according to manufacturers, because their more limited functionality holds less appeal to out-of-state customers.

“You just can’t run a business like that,” said Adam Weatherby, who generated headlines five years ago when he announced that he would relocate his company, Weatherby, a manufacturer of hunting rifles and shotguns, from Paso Robles to Wyoming. “At the end of the day, we were unable to stay competitive.”

Weatherby said he also had trouble recruiting employees to California because they had to give up so many personal weapons that are illegal in the state. Those he did hire were delayed starting for months while the California Department of Justice conducted background checks.

After four years of talking to other states and weighing the massive disruption of moving across the country, Weatherby finally committed in 2018 to Wyoming, which offered financial incentives. Though he was sad to leave California, where his grandfather founded the company in 1945, Weatherby said “it’s been the absolute best decision” — especially as he watched the state’s gun laws grow only tougher while his business doubled in size during the first three years in Wyoming.

“Hunting is a way of life here, so it culturally fit us as well,” he said. “We lost that in California some time ago. It didn’t feel like home anymore. We didn’t feel welcome anymore.”

‘I’d leave California in a heartbeat’

Not every gunmaker has the desire or the freedom to leave California. But it’s not uncommon at this point for owners and employees of these companies to imagine their own futures elsewhere — echoing a broader reorientation of the industry, away from its historic roots in the Northeast to friendlier territory in the South — even if it feels like pure fantasy.

“It definitely would be suitable and better for business if we moved out of state,” said Laurenzo Russi, who founded Titan Ballistics in Orange in 2015 to make competition rifles.

The following year, California revised its ban on assault weapons to make it more difficult for shooters to rapidly swap out magazines in their firearms. After Titan Ballistics updated its designs, Russi said he lost customers in other states, and he leaned into luxury customization, such as paint jobs and laser engraving, to offset the drop in revenue.

Yet all of his family, and their longtime business that Russi expects to eventually take over, is in California. “It’s not a realistic or a smart move for me,” he said.

Gunsmith Don Gregory shows off two new single action firearms recently released by Juggernaut Tactical in Orange on Sept. 21, 2023. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

Less than a mile away, along a stretch of auto body shops, Juggernaut Tactical’s workshop whirred on a recent afternoon as more than a dozen computerized machines shaped hunks of metal into lower receivers, thumb rests and rear pins.

“I’m ready to leave here. I’d leave California in a heartbeat,” gunsmith Don Gregory said as he presented the company’s display models in its small showroom. The owner had talked lately about moving out of the state, he said, but not seriously.

Gregory was less concerned about California’s mounting restrictions on firearms. Last year, Attorney General Rob Bonta ordered Juggernaut Tactical, which sells rifles, pistols and parts online and in gun stores across the state, to stop distributing a series of rifles that he said qualified as illegal assault weapons.

“Restrictions, we’ve always found our way around those,” Gregory said. “There’s tons and tons of smart people in California who are using their brains to keep innovating.”

Rear pins used to make firearms California-compliant are made in a machine at Juggernaut Tactical in Orange on Sept. 21, 2023. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

For the Rifle Supply team, leaving California seems out of the question. It’s not that they haven’t thought about going to Arizona or Idaho. They certainly understand why some other companies have. But they have aging parents to take care of and two dozen employees to consider. California is their home.

“I don’t think abandoning this state in a fight where it’s our constitutional right to bear arms is good,” said Justin Baca, Rifle Supply’s chief operating officer. “That would be like tucking tail and running. And that’s not our personalities.”

What feels more likely is they eventually get forced out. California’s Democratic leaders are clearly not fans of guns, they figure, but the Second Amendment prevents them from banning firearms altogether. So the state will just keep passing laws that make it more difficult for gun manufacturers and dealers to operate, until they no longer can — a potential nightmare for California residents as much as the businesses.

“The day that happens,” Rodriguez, the marketing manager, said, “it’s Gotham City.”

The rise and fall of ‘Ring of Fire’

It’s not entirely out of the question. Only a few decades ago, Southern California was a hub of handgun manufacturing.

In the wake of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 — which outlawed the import but not the domestic production of small, poorly made pistols known as “Saturday night specials” — a network of manufacturers primarily controlled by members of a single extended family developed on the outskirts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Marketed as a cheap self-defense option, the weapons gained popularity during an era of rising crime, and by 1992, six Southern California companies produced more than a third of all handguns manufactured in the United States that year, some 686,000 pistols.

“It was an anomaly,” said Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis gun violence researcher who dubbed the companies the “Ring of Fire” in a 1994 report about their operations.

The guns were unreliable, spurring safety concerns and product liability claims. They were also recovered disproportionately at crime scenes, fueling a political crackdown that bubbled up from local governments to the Legislature, which in 1999 mandated that any handgun model sold in California pass independent safety testing.

Wintemute said the law created standards that advocates knew the Ring of Fire companies would largely fail to meet. Most closed up shop or relocated to other states; only Phoenix Arms remains.

“The people who ran these companies were not gun people. They were let’s-make-money people,” Wintemute said. “Easy come, easy go. Conditions became difficult. The man who started it all had died. And the rest of them moved on.”

Flanked by lawmakers and gun safety advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom signs new gun legislation into law at the Capitol annex in Sacramento on Sept. 26, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

State leaders deny they are trying to shut down the gun industry in California.

“If that was the intent, it would have been a much higher number,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the Woodland Hills Democrat who pushed for the new 11% excise tax on firearms and ammunition. Modeled on a similar federal levy for wildlife conservation, it will bring in an estimated $160 million annually for violence intervention programs, school safety improvements and law enforcement efforts to confiscate guns from people who are prohibited from owning them.

“We view this as a modest tax,” Gabriel said. “The purpose of it is to raise revenue to support programs that we think are going to protect communities and save lives in the state of California.”

At the signing ceremony, Newsom, his tongue perhaps planted firmly in cheek, suggested that a tax supporting public safety might make Californians look at guns differently.

“Maybe that’s a good business opportunity,” he said.

‘All I can do is roll with it’

Located in an inconspicuous office park, the only thing that distinguishes Rifle Supply from the nearby design firms, flooring showroom, glass workshop, gym and children’s dance studio is a blue banner out front, visible from the road, that says GUNS.

The company, which Koukios founded in 2010 to sell parts online, moved into this larger space when the coronavirus pandemic brought a surge of new customers and allowed Rifle Supply to triple its staff. The original store, opened a few buildings down in 2016, is now a workshop for repairs, custom paint jobs, milling lower receivers and assembling two variations of the AR-15.

Upstairs is a studio where the Rifle Supply team records its podcast. Alongside car wraps and T-shirt giveaways, it’s the sort of unconventional promotion the company relies on to build its brand because more traditional channels are not always available to a firearms manufacturer. Facebook and Instagram don’t accept advertisements for weapons, while a California ban on marketing guns to minors, passed last year and blocked in court this month, further chilled its plans.

“I’ve had this burning, burning want to have billboards up,” Baca, the chief operating officer, said. “I’ve called all the billboard companies. None of them will do business with us because we work with guns.”

Despite its success — Rifle Supply earns about $10 million per year in sales, according to Koukios — the attitude towards firearms in California, wary at best and perhaps downright hostile, has constrained the business’ growth and may threaten its existence.

Recent plans to open another store in San Clemente fell through because the insurance company wanted to jack up rates for other tenants in the building as well. Koukios said he had to hire a second compliance officer because of all the extra paperwork California requires for gun sales on top of the federal background check.

When California moved last summer to crack down on homemade “ghost guns,” reclassifying unfinished receivers and kits to build them into weapons as firearms that must be serialized, Koukios said it cost Rifle Supply about 20% of its business. The store has leaned more into selling ammunition and accessories to make up for it.

“I don’t like it, but all I can do is roll with it,” Koukios said. “I think there’s a lot of politicians, especially in California, but all over the country, mostly Democratic, that want to cut their teeth on this particular issue. Because if they get something passed, they’re like, look how much I can do.”

Rifle Supply employees roll their eyes at many of California’s gun control measures. The 10-day “cooling off” period before customers can take possession of firearms they’ve purchased — now being challenged again in court — might make sense for a first-time buyer, they argue, but it’s unnecessary for someone who already owns weapons. While Californians can only purchase one firearm every 30 days, they can buy as many parts as they want and then build their own guns, though that is set to change in January.

“Whatever their ideology is on it is stupid,” Rodriguez said. “It always comes down to politicians making these rules on something they don’t know about.”

Owner John Koukios in his office at Rifle Supply in Huntington Beach on Sept. 21, 2023. Koukios said he grew up in Huntington Beach and although it may be cost efficient for the business to set up shop in a different state, this is his home. He said he doesn’t see himself moving but would consider opening a secondary store in another state. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

Koukios is encouraged by a March court decision partially striking down California’s handgun safety standards, in which a federal judge argued the law has actually blocked guns with updated, safer technology from entering the market here. The state, which is appealing, could be forced to allow the sale of new handgun models for the first time in two decades.

Then there’s that tax. Another chunk out.

“An additional tax on sales. You can’t sell these anymore. These are illegal. It just keeps going,” Koukios said. “It gets tiring having the conversation with customers about why they can’t have the thing.”

How hopeful is he that things will work out for Rifle Supply? On a scale of 1 to 10, he’s at a 7 or 8 that the company will make it 10 more years in California.

“Well, I’m a perpetual optimist,” Koukios said. On the wall hung a “Star Wars” poster with his face photoshopped onto Luke Skywalker.

He immediately seemed to backtrack as he explained the rating. “Because within that period of time, it’ll either be chipped away so far that it just won’t make sense and we’ll move on to something else or leave the state,” he said.

“That feeling comes and goes.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

MEL BERTI CELEBRATION OF LIFE
OCTOBER 29, 2023 – 1 p.m.
RIVERLODGE, 1800 RIVERWALK DR.
FORTUNA, CA

Melvin John Berti went to Eternal Life on July 23, 2023 at the age of 84. Mel was a Fortuna native, born and raised in Fortuna. He attended Fortuna schools and has spent much of his life involved in the community and doing things for the betterment of Fortuna.

Mel was a volunteer fireman for the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department for 52 years. He then went on to serve as a Commissioner on the Board of Directors for the Fortuna Fire Protection District. He served on the Fortuna City Council for 28 years, twice serving as Mayor. He was named Citizen of the Year in 2005. Mel served on the Fortuna Rodeo Association Board for many years and headed up the Rodeo Barbeque for many years. He was honored as Grand Marshall by the Fortuna Rodeo Association in 2022. He also served as a Director of the Humboldt County Fair Association for 14 years.

Mel spent many years involved in sports both coaching and also was a familiar voice on the radio as a broadcaster with both Bill Terry and Tag Wotherspoon, announcing games for local high schools and College of the Redwoods.

Mel will also be remembered by his smile and in his white apron behind the meat counter ready to prepare the perfect cut of meat for his customers.

Mel survived by his wife of 45 years, Sharon, and five children, Steven (Cheryl), Richard, Allison (Shawn), Jennifer (Owen) and Alex; his brother, Don (Donna) ; and numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and in-laws.

Mel touched many lives and will be greatly missed by all his family and friends.

Donation in Mel’s memory can be made to the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department, Hydesville Community Church, the Eureka First Church of the Nazarene, or a charity of your choosing.

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Emeritus Professor Barry Dalsant, who passed away last month, was a former English Department Chair and General Faculty President for HSU. He taught at HSU for over 40 years, leaving behind multiple generations of students who were inspired by his passion for English, quick wit and easy sense of humor. His colleagues describe Barry as kind, generous, a good friend, mentor, and colleague. There are many stories of the significant impact that Barry had on the lives of students, faculty, and staff.

Barry grew up in Denver’s northside in a middle class neighborhood dominated by World War II one story houses. His neighborhood was adjacent to the Highlands area which had been the first settlement in Denver. After high school Barry was accepted into Harvard where he completed his undergrad in English. He went on to receive his Masters in English from the University of Wisconsin and then his PhD from UC Berkeley. He received his first full-time teaching offer from Humboldt State University and made the county his home for the rest of his life.

In 1994 he married Humboldt-native Jennifer Eliason, whom he met as the Administrative Assistant in the English Department, in a relationship that lasted until her death last year. He didn’t have any biological childen, but he loved being stepfather for Jennifer’s three children; Brendan, Trevor and Megan.

He always kept his life on an even keel and navigated it with a steady hand. That was true even after his stroke and the physical problems that followed. He always had an aura of peace and serenity around him. He was comfortable in his own skin. He was kind, supportive, very bright, and had a wonderful sense of humor which he put to good use.

He will be missed but not forgotten.

There will be a Memorial gathering for Barry:

Date: Saturday, October 7, 2023
Time: 2-4 p.m.
Place: Green and Gold Room, Founders Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt
*Parking should be free at Cal Poly Humboldt on Saturdays.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Barry Dalsant’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

PREVIOUSLY: EUREKA HOMICIDE: EPD Seek Suspect They Say Stabbed Roommate to Death; Victim Identified

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One week after the Eureka Police Department issued a press release saying they’d secured an arrest warrant for 20-year-old Destinee Grace Rhamy, wanted in connection to the stabbing death of her former roommate, 27-year old Holland Elbik, Rhamy turned herself in at the county jail, according to the following release from the City of Eureka:

On September 27, 2023, Homicide Suspect Destinee Rhamy surrendered to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and was booked on her warrant for Murder.  Rhamy is being held on $750,000 bond.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the community’s help to locate a Del Norte County man last known to be in Southern Humboldt County.

Gilberto Bautista Hernandez, age 23, of Smith River, was last in contact with family members on Aug. 27, 2023. Hernandez is believed to have traveled to the Honeydew area to reportedly work on a farm.

Hernandez is described as a Hispanic male, approximately five feet tall, 130 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Hernandez is reportedly missing all of the toes on his right foot.  

Anyone who may have seen Hernandez in the Southern Humboldt area or has information about his whereabouts is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

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Move over, Bayshore Mall! There’s a new mall in town, and this one is pretty much way cooler. It’s called the 4th Street Mercantile, a brand new business on Fourth Street between C and D Streets in Eureka that holds more than 30 local vendors all under one roof. 

The business is the brainchild of owners Crystal and Aaron Woodbury Haynes, who used to live in McKinleyville and moved back to the area about a year ago. When lived away and returned to Humboldt, the couple would spend time visiting the flea markets and outdoor vendor markets – such as the Friday Night Market and the Old Town Vintage Market – and realized that although these were good options for some people to sell their wares, the area really didn’t have a permanent, indoor vendor market. 

The couple owns and operates a furniture business, Worthy of Love, which specializes in restoring used and antique home furnishings. As owners of a furniture business, they know that attending outdoor markets is not really an option for folks who sell larger items. 

Crystal and Aaron Woodbury Haynes pose outside their new shop | Submitted

“Most furniture vendors can’t do the little markets downtown because [the booths] are 10 by 10,” Crystal told the Outpost during a tour of the soon-to-open store. “So when we started this, we decided we were going to provide big spaces and make those spaces available for people who wanted to carry larger merchandise.” 

After looking at a few other spaces in Eureka, the two opted for the Fourth Street location, in the building that previously held the office of defunct newspaper the Eureka Reporter. Though it is not an area that necessarily gets a lot of foot traffic, they were happy with the size and layout and the fact that it has a parking lot, which they will use to hold open air markets on occasion.  

Once they secured the spot, the owners put out a call looking for vendors to rent out the booths. In less than a day, they had almost completely filled their available spaces and now have a long waiting list of small business owners who want to jump on board, they said. 

In addition to their own furniture business, the mercantile holds a variety of other local vendors selling all kinds of items, including refurbished and custom furniture, vintage clothing and accessories, glassware, art, handwoven blankets and much more. The Woodbury Hayneses said that they try to make sure that there is a lot of variety and that no two vendors are too much alike. Though a few of the vendors carry some new items, nearly all of the merchandise is either recycled or hand-crafted. 

The way it works is that the vendor pays a monthly fee to rent their booth space (the cost varies, depending on the size, with the biggest spaces costing $500 per month) and price their own merchandise with their own tags. Once the vendor has set up their space, they don’t have to stick around to man it or hire any of their own staff. The owners take care of all the sales and provide the vendors with their money, minus a 10 percent service fee. This type of business model is ideal for vendors who can’t afford to rent their own entire shop, or don’t have the time or the savvy to run their own business. 

Angela Hunt, owner of Rustic Whimsy, a shop that carries a combination of new and used items and custom furniture, decided to close down her Scotia shop in favor of moving into the 4th Street Mercantile because the setup allows her more time to focus on creating her pieces rather than spending it running a store. 

“The shop does okay, but people just don’t always make it out to Scotia,” Hunt told the Outpost while setting up at the mercantile. “I’ve been looking for a space like this. … This is ideal for me because I don’t have any employees, so this gives me time to work on custom pieces.” 

The space also holds a community classroom, which is available for the vendors (or other folks) to hold workshops and classes. The room can hold up to 24 people and can be rented out for $100 – with $50 due upfront to hold the spot and the other $50 due the day of the class. Hunt is very excited about the classroom, she said, because she sells a special kind of chalk-paint for making over furniture and housewares and has always wanted to hold a class to show people how to use the product. 

Because the mercantile holds many different businesses, the prices vary, but the owners said it is important to them to keep items as affordable as possible. They will offer layaway for pieces that cost $100 or more, allowing customers to pay half of the price up front and the other half when they pick it up, which can be up to 30 days later. In their own furniture store they also offer a “recycle furniture program,” Crystal said, where you can bring in a piece of used furniture and receive store credit. It’s okay if the piece needs some love because restoring furniture is what they do, but it does need to be real wood. No particle board, folks. 

“We understand that people are struggling,” Aaron said. “We have kids and we see our kids struggling and we try to help them as much as we can. Now we’re just trying to put it out there so we can help others as well, because everyone is struggling right now with the cost of everything.”   

4th Street Mercantile will be holding a grand opening this Saturday, Sept. 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will feature not only the vendors inside the store but also 20 outdoor vending booths, multiple food trucks and music. Starting on Saturday, the store will regularly be open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

If you are interested in renting a space at 4th Street Mercantile or just learning more, you can call the store at 707-798-1731, message them on Facebook, or just come in! The owners want you to see the space before you commit anyway, so they would love for you to come say ‘Hi!’

Scroll down for more photos of LoCO‘s peek inside the new store!

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 27, 2023, at about midnight, Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a fire camp along State Route 96 in Orleans for the report of a drive-by shooting.

According to security officers at the location, a dark-colored sedan occupied by two people reportedly drove past the camp and began shooting out of the vehicle. No one was injured. The vehicle reportedly continued driving, turning down Asip Road. Deputies searched the area but were unable to locate the suspects.  

This case is still under investigation. Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.