NRA Blasts State, Local Rules That Hurt Small Gun Stores

One way large companies put smaller competitors out of business is by lobbying for regulations that increase the burdens on the smaller companies, thus increasing their operating costs and putting them out of business. This is called rent-seeking, and it’s scummy behavior, to say the least. And it’s not that different when it’s anti-gunners trying to do the same thing to gun stores.

That’s been happening all over the place. While the feds are trying to relieve some burdens on gun stores, state and local governments are doing the opposite, and the NRA isn’t a fan, unsurprisingly.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is pushing back against a growing wave of state and local regulations targeting firearms dealers, arguing that proposals aimed at tightening oversight threaten the survival of small gun shops rather than improving public safety.

As more jurisdictions consider stricter requirements for gun retailers, NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford accused “progressive politicians” of using burdensome rules and costly mandates to drive mom-and-pop firearm dealers out of business and restrict lawful access to guns.

“Throughout the country, progressive politicians are trying to bury mom-and-pop gun stores under burdensome regulations and needless redundancies designed to harass already heavily regulated firearm dealers,” Commerford told Newsweek in an emailed statement Wednesday.

“These proposals, like the one in Pennsylvania, do nothing to increase firearm safety or reduce theft. Instead, they make running a business so complicated and costly that dealers are forced to shut down,” he continued, adding, “The real goal is not to help gun dealers—it is to put them out of business and restrict lawful firearm access for law-abiding citizens.”

The statement comes amid a proposal that would force Pennsylvania gun dealers to face annual state inspections, a move Democratic sponsors say would help curb the flow of lost and stolen firearms into the illegal market.

The goal with these measures is to make it as difficult for small gun stores to remain in business, because most gun stores fall into that category. Plus, larger chain outlets are more easily bullied into capitulation than mom-and-pop shops. Those smaller stores are likely to dig in for a fight because they’re believers in the Second Amendment.

The CEO of Walmart isn’t.

And that’s kind of the point. 

Each new regulation, each new inspection, each new roadblock creates a system that makes it harder and harder to stay in business. Increased work translates to increased costs to the business. They might absorb some of that, but small gun stores don’t have the profit margins to do that forever. Sooner or later, something’s got to give.

By running them out of business in the name of “public safety,” as these measures are described, they can do it and pretend they’re the good guys. They didn’t ban the stores, after all, so no Second Amendment violation in their minds. But they still ran them out of business just to create an environment where it’s harder for regular Americans to get firearms.

That’s the goal, and anyone with a brain can see it. Commerford told Newsweek the absolute truth.

I know they don’t like it, but they can get bent in that case.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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