Colorado Springs Gun Store May relocate

[Guest Squint Westwood]

Wonder how many others will decide torelocate, especially if the bill by Sen. Morse becomes law? Specialty Sports
is one of the biggest privately-owned gun stores in Colorado and carries a large inventory.

Springs gun shop owner threatens to leave pending gun bills

POSTED: 06:16 PM MST Mar
04, 2013

 

COLORADO SPRINGS,
Colo. -

Jeff Lepp, owner and CEO of Specialty Sports, is threatening to pull his business out of Colorado if lawmakers pass stricter firearms laws.

"I will accept absolutely no firearms laws or any changes as to ammunition laws of any shape or form," said Lepp.

Lepp said he gave his first television interview in eight years only because he is so fed up with lawmakers in Denver.

"The governor has no clue the economic impact on the state of
Colorado," he said.

Lepp said tightening guns laws will impact hunting, tourism, the ski industry and more. He said proposals like the one to hold sellers and manufacturers of firearms responsible for damage, injury or death goes too far.

"The Colorado Bureau of Investigation does their full background check which is more in depth than the FBI check. If they approve somebody to us, we have no reason in the world to doubt that person is not legally and potentially mentally capable of owning that firearm," he said.

Lepp said tragedies like the Aurora Theater shooting shouldn't impact responsible gun owners. "Each of these people are mentally challenged in one way or another, it has nothing to do with firearms. It's the people," he
said.

For now, Lepp is running his business as usual. But he is keeping a close watch on what happens at the state Capitol.

 

[Guest Squint Westwood]

I wonder why I'm a "guest" since I have been on the Wire since 1999. ?? Squint

[Hacker, SASS #55963]

While I know both the shop and the owner, I wonder what impact this would really have.

A dozen or employees unemployed.

A shop attempting to relocate to another state?

I don't think this would have any real impact except to deny Colorado Springs, possibly the largest gunshop in Colorado.

 

Closing down has almost the same argument as not selling to California due to paperwork.

[Longhorn Jack]

I think he was referring to other gun related buisnesses in Colorado like magpul threating to pull out also. The list of tactical equipment manufacturers and other gun related businesses threating to not sell to law enforcement agencies and states threating new gun laws is growing daily. There are lots of rumors floating around about major weapons manufacturers thinking of moving out of restrictive states to more gun friendly states like Remington arms moving their AR assembley plant out of New York and . I believe the next few months are going to be interesting to say the least.

[Hacker, SASS #55963]

LJ, Perhaps you should read the first post in this thread.

Specifically the line that begins; "Jeff Lepp, owner and CEO of Specialty Sports, is threatening to pull his business out of Colorado ..."

 

Reads like he is thinking about Specialty Sports.

I think, the comment about the governor is more specifically about magpul.

[Buckshot Frank]

If it is a large shop, I'm sure that they generate a lot of sales tax dollars for the county that will be lost if the move.

[Hacker, SASS #55963]

If it is a large shop, I'm sure that they generate a lot of sales tax dollars for the county that will be lost if the move.

It is a large shop. The largest I have seen in Colorado.

But I bet that the sales tax dollars are small compared to the lost state income tax revenue.

The sales tax dollars are shared between the state, county, city and perhaps some other entities.

Most important is what entity gets the revenue.