Posted on 10/02/2006 10:45:11 AM PDT by neverdem
MILL VALLEY mom Joan Rodriguez decided she needed an outlet to release the frustrations that come with running a real estate business with her husband and guiding a teenage son through middle school. So she went back to school. Pistol school.
Rodriguez, 47, didn't tell anyone - not even her husband - when she signed up for the entry pistol-shooting class at Bullseye Shooting Range in San Rafael. The stigma attached to guns in Marin County made that unthinkable at first, she said.
She finally broke the silence several months ago by confiding in one of her son's friends after hearing he had a family member who liked to shoot guns.
"It's fun," she said. "It's not a bad thing."
She is not alone.
Despite a drop in Marin gun sales over the past five years, sales last year were on par with the rest of the state, and business is brisk at Marin's lone indoor shooting range.
The county may have a liberal political bent and a low rate of violent crime - half that of San Francisco and a third of Sonoma County. But law enforcement officials and gun owners say they would not be surprised if more than half of Marin's residents own guns.
"The typical reaction is not to talk about it unless they're with people who understand it," said Jim Edgar, owner of Western Sports in San Rafael.
He and others describe a quiet subculture of Marin gun owners who keep weapons for personal protection, hunting and collecting.
There are no reliable statistics on the number of Marin residents who own guns, but Marin gun shops sell, on a per-capita basis, slightly more guns than the state average. Last year, local shops sold one weapon per 104 Marin residents, compared with one per 105 residents statewide, based on figures from the attorney general's office and the U.S. Census.
Although sales of new rifles, shotguns and pistols dipped 12 percent in Marin from 2001 to 2005, compared with a 4 percent statewide drop, sales have ticked up each year since 2003.
Business is strong at the Bullseye range, where gun sales that had averaged about 50 a month for many years doubled this year, said new owner Bill Byrd, who bought both the Bullseye range and the Marin Firearms gun shop in Novato in May.
He speculates that the chaos that reigned in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina may have spurred many people here and throughout the country to arm themselves just in case police aren't around when help is needed.
Byrd has temporarily closed Marin Firearms while he settles paperwork involved in the ownership transfer, but he plans to reopen it in time for the holiday season.
Edgar, of Western Sports, said there isn't a typical gun owner anymore; one person might like to hunt birds, another enjoys target shooting and still another might enjoy collecting a particular model of gun.
"It's an historical thing to some, it's a workmanship thing with others," he said.
Oldtimers call upon memories of Marin County's rural roots when they talk about the days when almost everyone owned a gun. Shooting ducks in Richardson Bay was a popular pastime for kids 50 years ago.
Although there is still some deer hunting on West Marin ranches, duck hunting off Hamilton Field and a turkey season, for the most part hunting is a thing of the past in Marin because of population and protected land.
"The county changed, we didn't," said Tiburon resident Tim Harris, 73, a 48-year Marin County resident. "Screwdrivers are dangerous too."
While hunter safety classes may not be a rite of passage for Marin children the way they are in some parts of the country, they're still popular whenever someone organizes them. A two-day, $125 youth camp sold out this summer for kids who got hands-on shooting, safe handling skills, firearm ethics and exposure to information about duck calling, bird identification and bird dogs.
"We've had a good response from the area," said George Oberstadt, an official with the California Waterfowl Association in Sacramento.
George Buckle, a 66-year-old former San Anselmo mayor, said he learned to love firearms as a kid growing up in Mill Valley. One of his favorite things to do was hunt ducks in Richardson Bay.
"Everyone had a BB gun or a .22," he said. "It was the way of life."
Buckle learned to shoot a lot of different weapons in the Marine Corps, but returned home and didn't own a gun for probably 30 years. Marriage and children took priority.
"After they left I got back into it as a hobby," he said.
Buckle developed an interest in pistols about 10 years ago and now they make up the bulk of his 50-gun collection. He considers himself more of a shooter than a collector.
He'd like to get back into hunting after retiring from his engineering job with the county. But until then, he said he's plenty happy shooting a couple hundred rounds a month at Bullseye in San Rafael.
"No matter what hobby you have, you get into it," he said. "Collecting guns is not different."
Bullseye occupies a unique niche in Marin.
Situated in a nondescript commercial building at the end of Andersen Drive near the Central Marin Sanitary District sewage treatment plant, Bullseye sells more pistols than any other establishment in the county, it's the only indoor range in Marin and is a frequent hang out for law enforcement types.
It made headlines after Aug. 31 when a 28-year-old San Francisco man turned a pistol on himself, the fourth time that has happened at the range in the past 13 years. When it occurred, two National Park Service police officers were target shooting and immediately set about rescue operations.
Like Marin's gun subculture, Bullseye keeps a low profile in a county better known for its hot tubs and mountain bikes. Novato resident Mark Baradat started Bullseye about 15 years ago, although he recently sold it to Byrd.
It features gun rentals and sales, several glass cases full of handguns, racks of assault weapons and tactical shotguns, storage lockers for people who don't want to keep weapons at home and an armor-plated firing range with 10 stalls.
Baradat said he tried to make the place friendly by not allowing clerks to wear holstered pistols inside the store. The silhouette targets are mostly green or blue so blacks don't take issue with black targets, and there aren't any targets featuring photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein - like gun stores sell in other parts of the country.
He said when he owned it he tried to make it "a family place."
Baradat said the business sells two handguns to every rifle or shotgun and about 65 percent of sales involve locals. He said Marin residents favor expensive guns.
He said he sold two .50 caliber rifles prior to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger banning them in 2004 - and more than 15 during the ensuing weeks before the ban went into effect.
"Business went nuts," he said.
Summer months are generally slow at Bullseye because people would rather be outside enjoying the good weather rather than inside an armor-plated room that reeks of burnt powder, even if some of them love that smell. The dark, rainy months of winter are peak season for buying guns, shooting them at the range and just hanging around others with similar interests.
In addition to specializing in pistols, Bullseye also serves as a headquarters for shooting classes and law enforcement officers from Fairfax, San Anselmo, Novato and elsewhere who need to keep up with training requirements.
Tony Kang, an officer with the U.S. Park Police in the Presidio, stopped in recently to keep up with his training requirements. Everyone he works with shoots there.
"We come up here three or four times a year," he said.
For the most part, classes are taught by Corte Madera resident Peter Koch, who is a specialized pistol expert. He can help experts hone their skills or introduce shooting to people like Rodriguez, the Mill Valley mom.
The recent suicide occurred during a private lesson with Koch, although those present said there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. He said he's been asked a hundred times by others whether this makes him reconsider his occupation and the answer is always the same: no.
He said as traumatic as the event was, it's the type of incident that can - and does - happen anywhere.
Byrd, the new owner, said range business dropped dramatically after the suicide, but he's confident it will pick back up. He and the employees have begun taking suicide-prevention classes, but everything indicates nothing short of closing the store could have prevented it.
Byrd said he still is happy to own the place despite the incident, because there is demand, and need, for a place to shoot in a safe, controlled environment. He said he plans to offer more classes such as a hunter safety course for children during 2007.
He said he doesn't get many strange looks from locals when they find out he owns the local shooting range. It's quite the opposite.
"A majority of the people ask if they can shoot," he said.
Contact Tad Whitaker via e-mail at twhitaker@marinij.com
This, from the same region that brought you Barbara Boxer.
My kind of woman
"He speculates that the chaos that reigned in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina may have spurred many people here and throughout the country to arm themselves just in case police aren't around when help is needed."
Chaos created by whom???
New Orleans was a powder keg waiting for a spark...And to think that some people were shocked and surprised at the outcome???
Balderdash!
Been there at the Bullseye! :) It's clean, well run, indoors.
I grew up in Marin, and my first paying job in life -- was shooting crows. $.25/pair claws. I was 10. Every kid in my area had bb guns. We could go on up into the hills, camp for a couple of days, as long as we had our bb guns, dry socks, and knew how to avoid the angry bulls.
Marin was once so safe, and so sane.
That is awesome!
I was thinking the same thing.. don't tell senator babs
It was the most perfect place to grow up, IMHO. Hills and nature, patriotism -- drop dead beautiful topography. Lots of WWII vets preventing us from all acting stupid. The "ugly" entered through Public Education. That is where and how Marin was changed into something resembling the Nightingale's cage.
How true!
"and there aren't any targets featuring photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein - like gun stores sell in other parts of the country."
---
lol!
CA law bans any target that resembles a human form. When we go to the range if we shoot on silhouettes we have to fold the head down so it won't look like a human. The police are the only ones who can shoot on silhouettes. Talk about PC gone wild!
"No matter what hobby you have, you get into it," he said. "Collecting guns is not different."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
What is that powder, about 30 grains of 7828 in a hand gun?
Have a Tyranasaurus target
Beware the Fire Bunny!
Mark
Probably a slow burning pistol powder, like WW 296. Even in a 6" barrel S&W Model 29, there's a huge fireball when I fire a heavy load.
Mark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.