NAAGA recently had the honor of speaking to one of the few African American owners of a gun range and store in the United States, Geneva and  Jonathan Solomon of Redstone Firearms. The husband and wife team are a force, and they are known nationally in the firearms community. We touched base to talk specifically about gun sales during the current pandemic and how it is affecting their business.

Q: Hello, Geneva and Jonathan. Thanks for taking time to us about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected you personally. How are you both doing since Shot Show 2020?

Doing good, but Geneva and I believe that I contracted the coronavirus while at the 2020 Shot Show. The last day of the convention, Geneva began to feel extremely ill and was sick for almost a month. All of the symptoms that she displayed closely identify with that of Covid-19. Now on a business level, it has definitely caused a huge uptick for Redstone Firearms.

Q: How has the coronavirus affected your firearms business?  Have sales increased? 

Sales have definitely increased. One day we looked up and had a line wrapped around outside of the store. Geneva conducts a basic firearms class once a month where she introduces new gun owners to California gun laws. In the class she teaches students how to legally purchase a firearm in California, the six fundamental rules of firearms safety, the importance of training, and much more. Right before California was placed under a shelter-in-place order, her class had 30 students enrolled. Before that, on a typical day, the class would have 7-10 new gun owners. Then, each passing day, we had more and more new gun owners showing up to purchase guns and ammunition and needing education on how to use them. We started receiving over 100+ calls a day, along with text messages and emails.

Q: Gun sales up or down?

Gun sales are definitely up. I would say for us as one of the smaller dealers in Burbank, California, our sales were up at least 50%.

Q: What about training requests? Are they up or down?

Training requests increased as well. Since our model is to consult, educate, and train, we tend to make sure we spend extra time with new gun owners and even give them homework. This includes encouraging them to purchase snap caps, walking through safe handling tips with them, and educating them on the private lessons offered on the range. As a result, we sold out of 12 private range sessions in a matter of hours, while prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, our private lessons would take about 2 weeks to fill up and get sold out.

Q: What guns have been popular?  Glock, AR-15’s…AK74, etc. ?

Glock was defiantly the first to go. More specifically the Glock 19 and 17. We started seeing first time buyers who purchased used Glock 19’s for inflated prices in Gun Broker and having them shipped into us. Once Glock was gone, people just took whatever we had in stock. We had partner gun stores around the corner shutting down and sending people to our store (if we had inventory). There were several days we had to shut down and only focus on pick up only so we could catch up. Additionally, shot guns also sold out rather quickly. We sold a lot of the H&R Pardner pump and Mossbergs.

Q: What Calibers have been selling?

We have been selling 9MM mostly, but once the 9MM was hard to get ahold of, those who came after the huge rush had to settle on the .40 or .45. We did sell a few .380’s and .22’s. Also keep in mind, we can hardly keep any ammo in stock.

Q: What Calibers haven’t been selling as much and are readily available?

Everything has been selling. I would say there are still has some .38 specials still available on the market.

Q: Have you seen an increase with “Newbie Gun Owners”?

Yes. There has been tremendous growth among new gun owners, and the need to take beginner classes have doubled.

Q: Anything else you want to add?

We are glad that people are seeing the need to protect their homes and families. We just want them to find a local instructor they trust and train, spend time learning the gun they purchased, and put as much effort in education and training that they did standing in 8-10 hour lines to purchase the firearm. If they need help finding an instructor, they can reach out to their local NAAGA Chapter, NAAGA National or even us at Redstone Firearms. We are proud of those who have taken personal responsibility for their self protection, but that is only a part of the process.

Great feedback, and thanks for allowing NAAGA to speak with you. God Bless and talk to you both soon.